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ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



A CHARACTER SKETCH 



ROBERT DICKINSON SHEPPARD, D.D. 

Prof, of American and English History, Northwestern University 



WITH ANECDOTES, CHARACTERISTICS AND 
CHRONOLOGY 



i > 

tit ■> 



PUBLISHED BY THE 

H. G. CAMPBELL PUBLISHING CO. 

MILWAUKEE, WIS. 



tf 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 


Q«te Ctt|»M Received 

APR 8 1903 

Copyright Entry 
Gfc*#t- -**«■ No. 

/ 3 9 /^ 

gOfYk 



Copyright 1899, 
By The University Association. 



'•"••«• • 




Robert Dicki nson Sheppard D.D. 



§ 



IT is a far cry from a Kentucky cabin to the White 
House at Washington, from the estate of a poor white 
child in the south to that of Cl.ief Magistrate of the 
United States of America. Yet it is our task to show 
how that distance was spanned in the life of Abraham 
Lincoln, and the story of it should be of the highest in- 
terest to every American youth. 

We are probably not sufficiently removed from the 
times of Abraham Lincoln to estimate him in his full 
proportions. The greater part of the literature that has 
been written concerning him, that is not absolutely 
ephemeral, has been written for a people who reverenced 
him, and who would brook no other than a reverent hand- 
ling of the object of their devotion. Such jealousy, how- 
ever, was needless, for loving hands have written, intel- 
ligently and judicially the story of his life, and of the 
unfolding of his character. They have written with the 
ardor of personal friendship and almost in the heat of the 
exciting days when Lincoln stood as their champion and 
contended for the National Union to which they were 
devoted. 

These circumstances are not favorable to the ex- 

5 



6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

position of the real Lincoln. xAnd yet more than most 
of the great men of history, his individuality was so strik- 
ing, its outlines were so well defined, that even a poor 
artist can trace them, and in his maturer years his action 
was so studied and deliberate as if he were appealing to 
the solemn verdict of future generations- that it is not 
easy to go far astray in our judgments concerning him. 
Take him for all in all, he furnishes lis a striking exam- 
ple taken from our own times, of atypical American who 
was born in poverty and reared amid unlikely surround- 
ings and influences, but who made the most of his slen- 
der opportunities for intellectual culture, kept himself 
pure amid much that was degrading, and step by step, 
attained to nobleness of character, to intellectual strength, 
to honor and station among those who knew him best 
and finally, to the highest eminence of position and honor 
that an American can reach. 

In his career he epitomizes a half century of the most 
interesting and critical conditions of our national life. 
And the progress of events that culminated in the Civil 
War, its conduct, and the work of reconstruction that 
followed it, can nowhere be studied as intelligently as in 
the story of his outlook on the political life of the nation, 
of his political affiliations, and his active participation in 
the settlement of the great questions that involved the 
existence and prosperity of the nation. 

We shall turn first to his ancestry and early environ- 
ment. He was born February 12th in the year 1809, in 
a miserable cabin on the farm of Thomas Lincoln, or 
"Linkhorn,'' as he was sometimes called,three miles from 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 7 

Hodgensville in the present county of LaRue in the state 
of Kentucky. Of his ancestry on the Lincoln side, little 
is known save that they were among the early settlers of 
Virginia and were of English descent, and probably were 
Quakers. The mother of Abraham Lincoln was Nancy 
Hanks, whose ancestors came from England to Virginia 
and moved on to Kentucky with the Lincolns, settling 
near them in Mercer County. 

It was while learning his trade as a carpenter in the 
shop of Joseph Hanks, the uncle of Nancy Hanks, that 
Thomas Lincoln met and courted the mother of the great 
president. He was of medium stature, standing five 
feet-ten in his shoes. His complexion was swarthy, his 
hair dark, his eyes gray, his face full and round, his nose 
prominent; he was strong and sinewy; he was peace lov- 
ing but brave enough to fight when occasion demanded, 
as it often did in those rough days in the border state of 
Kentucky; he was of roving disposition, a good story tel- 
ler, and full of anecdote picked up in his wanderings. 
In politics he was a Jackson Democrat, and in religion 
"everything by turns and nothing long." A botch car- 
penter by trade, he soon tired of that and turned farmer, 
though he did not entirely abandon rough carpentry, and 
as a farmer he showed his inconstancy by frequent mi- 
grations from one location to another. 

Nancy Hanks is described as a slender, symmetrical, 
woman of medium height, with dark hair, regular feat- 
ures, and sparkling hazel eyes. Of her it is related, as an 
unusual circumstance in the illiteracy of the time, that 
she possessed the rare accomplishments of reading and 



8 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

writing, and taught her husband to write his name. She 
was born to drudgery and her natural beauty soon gave 
place to the faded and woe -begone expression that pov- 
erty and struggle and uncertainty are wont to write on 
the faces and forms of the women of the frontier. The 
first home of her married life was a wretched hovel in 
one of the alleys of Elizabeth town, Kentucky, where her 
first child was born, and a little later she occupied with 
her husband the miserable cabin on Nolin Creek where, 
on account of his thriftlessness, he barely met the neces- 
sities of the little household. 

It was here that Abraham Lincoln was born. The 
manger at Bethlehem was not a more unlikely birth- 
place. And here he remained until he w T as four years 
old, and then the elder Lincoln migrated to another farm 
some six miles from Hodgensville, on Knob Creek, whose 
clear waters flowed at length into the Ohio, twenty-four 
miles below Louisville. This new move that might have 
proved advantageous — for the banks of the creek and the 
valleys of the region gave great promise of fertility — 
was like Thomas Lincoln's other experiences; only six 
acres out of the two hundred and thirty-eight that made 
up the farm, were worked, and no permanent title to the 
land was acquired by him. After four years a new mi- 
gration began, this time to Indiana. 

During these years of Kentucky life young Lincoln's 
development went on with none of the modern aids. A 
few days of schooling each summer at the hands of 
Zachariah Riney and Caleb Hazel were all the opportu- 
nities that Kentucky offered him. During the re- 




The early home of Lincoln in Elizabethtown, Ky. 
From Raymond's "Life of Lincoln." 



io ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

mainder of his time he vegetated. In the fall of 
1816, the spirit of change came over Thomas Lin- 
coln once more. He had had some experience as a 
flat-boatman on two trips to New Orleans, and thought 
to move in that way. He used his skill in' car- 
pentry for the construction of a flat-boat, converted 
his personal property into four hundred gallons of 
whiskey, and started with his tools and his whiskey, alone. 
He was ship-wrecked on the raging Ohio but righted his 
boat, rescued most of his whiskey and a few of his tools, 
and floated down to Thompson's Ferry two and a half 
miles west of Troy, in Ferry County, Indiana. Sixteen 
miles distant from the river, he found a place that he re- 
garded a promising location. Thence he started back 
on foot for his wife and children, and on borrowed horses 
he brought the few remaining effects of his family, their 
clothing and bedding: and the small stock of kitchen 
utensils. 

The Lincoln farm was situated between the forks of 
the Big and the Little Pigeon Creeks a mile and a half 
east of the little village of Gentryville, in a small well- 
wooded region, full of game. There he built a log cabin 
closed on three sides and open on the fourth. The 
house was about fourteen feet square and floorless. Into 
this comfortless cabin, with few of the ordinary arrange- 
ments for warmth or covering, exposed to all the winds 
that blow, for it was on a hillock and built of poles, he 
conducted his little family. The place was a solitude. 
No road approached it save the trail that Lincoln had 
blazed through the woods. For a whole year they en- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



n 



dured the discomforts of this home in the woods, while 
some ground was being cleared and a little crop planted. 
Some relatives followed them from Kentucky the next 
year, and among 
them, Dennis 
Hanks, the young 
cousin of Abraham 

Lincoln. 

In 1817 a new 
log house was 
reared by Thom- 
as Lincoln of un- 
hewed timbers and 
without floor, door 
or windows. Sev- 
en or eight older 
settlers had pre- 
ceded them to this 
region and soon 
a tide of emigra- 
tion poured in, 
sparsely peopling the waste places of the new state of 
Indiana. The nearest hand-mill to Thomas Lincoln was 
ten miles away, whither Abraham carried the grist. Of 
schooling there was little more than in Kentucky, and 
that of a very simple kind. For two years Thomas Lin- 
coln went the even tenor of his way, raising a little corn, 
shooting a little game, failing to provide systematically 
or with any solicitude for the needs of his family. No 
furniture was in the house save the roughest — three-legged 




Dennis Hanks. 



12 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

stools for chairs, a log with legs on it for a table, bed- 
steads made of poles fastened at one end to the wall and 
resting on forked sticks, driven into the earthen floor at 
the other end. On these, boards were laid, while leaves 
and old clothing served for the bed. They ate from a 
few pewter dishes, without knives or forks. A dutch oven 
and a skillet, were the sole utensils of their cabin. A 
bed-room in the loft, to which he climbed on pins driven 
in the wall, was the nightly roost of the future president. 

Now the milk sickness appeared, and Thomas Lin- 
coln's carpentry was employed in building rough coffins 
for the dying settlers. He cut out the timber from logs 
with his whip-saw and made rough boxes for a number 
of his friends. Nancy Lincoln was stricken. There was 
not a physician within thirty miles, and no money to pay 
him should he come. Without a hand to relieve her, the 
poor jaded woman, the mother of the great president, 
dropped away on the 5th of October, 18 18, and was 
buried without ceremony in an unmarked grave. She 
had given birth to a man-child on whom time should set 
the seal of greatness. His sole apparent inheritance from 
her, however, seems to have been the tinge of melancholy 
that often clouded his life. In his observations upon 
the making of his character he has little or nothing to 
say of his own mother. The early years of his life were 
years of neglect. He grew up in deprivation, ill-fed, ill- 
clothed, to develop alone in the sunshine and in the 
forest the nature that was in him. 

But a new influence was soon imported into the Lin- 
coln home. After thirteen months of widowhood, 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 13 

Thomas Lincoln made a journey to Kentucky, and 
brought home with him a new wife, whom he had known 
and loved many years before as Sally Bush, a woman of 
"great energy and good sense, very neat and tidy in her 
person and manners, and who knew how to manage 
children." She brought with her from her Kentucky 
home a store of luxuries and comforts that the Indiana 
cabin had never known. It took a four-horse team to 
move her effects, and at once she demanded that the 
floorless, windowless and doorless cabin should be made 
habitable. Warm beds were for the first time provided 
for the children. She took off their rags and clothed 
them from her own stores; she washed them and treated 
them with motherly tenderness, and to use her own lan- 
guage, she made them look a little more human. 

Her heart went out at once to young Abe and all was 
changed for him. She discovered possibilities in him 
and set about his training, gratified, loved and directed 
him, and won his heart. She was the mother whom he 
describes as his"saintly mother,hisangelofa mother who 
first made him feel like a human being" — and took him 
out of the rut of degradation and neglect and shiftless- 
ness that, if long continued, might have controlled his 
destiny. She insisted that he should be sent to school 
as soon as there was a school to go to; he had already ac- 
quired a little reading and writing and was quick in the 
acquisition of knowledge. 

In the rude school house at Little Pigeon Creek where 
Hazel Dorsey presided, Abraham attended in the winter 
of 181 9, and quickly became the best speller in the 



H ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

school. In the winter of 1822 and '23 he attended An- 
drew Crawford's school in the §ame place, where manners 
as well as spelling, were a part of the curriculum. He 
was now a lanky lad of fifteen, and rapidly rising to his 
full stature of six feet-four. He was not a beauty with 
his big feet and hands, his shrivelled and yellow skin, 
and his costume of low shoes, and buckskin breeches too 
short by several inches,his linsey-woolsey shirt and coon- 
skin cap; but he was good-humored and gallant, popu- 
lar with the boys and girls, and a leader. 

His last schooling was in 1826, at a school four and a 
half miles from his home, kept by Mr. Swaney. By this 
time he had acquired all the knowledge that the poor 
masters of that frontier region could impart, henceforth he 
must supervise his own education, as the family were too 
poor to spare him if opportunities for learning had pre- 
sented themselves. He must work now in the shop or 
on the farm, or as a hired boy among the neighbors. 
One of his employers tells us that he used to get very 
angry with him, he was always reading or thinking 
when he got a chance, and would talk and crack jokes 
half the time. After the days work was over, by the 
light of the fire, he would sit and cipher on the wooden 
fire shovel. Any book that fell in his way was eagerly 
devoured, and its striking passages were written down 
and preserved. "Aesops Fables" improved his native 
art of pungent story telling, "Robinson Crusoe," Bun- 
yan's "Pilgrim's Progress" and the Bible were eagerly 
read by him, as were Weem's "Washington" and a his- 
torv of the United States. These few books enriched 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 15 

his mind and laid the basis of his straight-forward, lucid 
literary style. The Revised Statutes of Indiana, that 
could not be loaned from the office of the constable, drew 
him thither like a magnet, and became the basis of his 
legal lore. 

At home, he was the soul of kindness, instantly ready 
for kindly service, full of his jokes and stories. His 
father and his cousin were storytellers and it was often a 
matter of friendly rivalry which could out-do the other. 
That talent, thus cultivated, was one of the sources of his 
mastery of men. He had a powerful memory and would 
often repeat to his comrades long passages from the books 
he had read, or regale them with parts of the Sunday 
sermon with such perfect mimicry that the tones and 
gestures of the rude preachers of that day were vividly 
reproduced. Even in the harvest field, he was wont to 
take the stump and sadly interfere with the labor of the 
day by discoursing to the harvest hands, and more than 
once his father had to break up this diversion with se- 
verity. He had the instincts of the politician and the 
orator. He could please and divert men, and these rude 
early opportunities developed in him the consciousness 
of his power that should one clay become so masterful. 

His fondness for the society of his fellows was very 
marked. He could withdraw himself utterly from men 
over a book, but his tastes were strong to be among men. 
All the popular gatherings where men assembled were 
eagerly sought out by him; corn shuckings, log rollings, 
shooting matches, weddings, had a strong fascination for 
him. He enjoyed the sport and was one of the foremost 



16 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

to make it. In all rustic sports he was at home. His 
strength was phenomenal, and as a wrestler he seldom 
found his match. 

From the time he left Crawford's school he was using 
all his faculties daily and learning all that the rude world 
about him had to teach him. Dennis Hanks tells us of 
the educational processes of the time, "We learned by 
sight, scent and hearing. We' heard all that was said, 
and talked over and over the questions heard, wore them 
slick, greasy and threadbare, went to political and other 
speeches and gatherings as you do now. We would 
hear all sides and opinions, talk them over, discuss them, 
agreeing or disagreeing. He preached, made speeches, 
read for us, explained to us, etc. He attended trials, went 
to court always, read the Revised Statutes of Indiana, 
dated 1824, heard law speeches and listened to law trials. 
He was always reading, scribbling, writing poetry, and 
the like. To Gentryville, about one mile west of Thomas 
Lincoln's farm, Lincoln would go and tell his jokes and 
stories, and was so odd, original, humorous and witty, 
that all the people in town would gather round him and 
he would keep them there till mid-night. He was a good 
talker, a good reader, and a kind of news-boy." 

Thus he absorbed all the intellectual life that was 
astir, and used his powers as he had occasion, observing 
public business, watching the methods of the attorneys 
at the bar and kindling with their eloquence. Once the 
awkward boy attempted to compliment an attorney for 
his great effort, and years afterward he met him and re- 
called the circumstance, telling him that up to that time 



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it was the best speech he had ever heard, and of his feel- 
ing- that if ever he conld make such a speech as that his 
soul would be satisfied. High aspiration was evidently 
stirring in him then, and more than once, when twitted 
with his fooling, as his story telling and pranks were 
called, and asked what would ever become of him, he was 
wont to answer that he was going to be President of the 
United States. In the rude circles in which he moved, 
his power of instructing, entertaining and leading was 
recognized. It was a prophecy to him of leadership in 
a larger sphere. 

In 1828, he made his first trip to New Orleans as a flat- 
boatman at eight dollars a month. The trip was full of 
adventure, and attended with some danger, but it was a 
profitable one for his employer, and one of enlargement 
of mind for the employed. From that time till 1830, 
when he became of age, he worked among the neighbors 
or for his father. And then it was determined to emi- 
grate to Illinois. There, at a point ten miles west of De- 
catur, the Lincolns settled, and Abraham's last filial act 
before his majority was to split rails for the fencing of 
the ploughed land of the new homestead. Then he was 
free and the home ties were sundered, though his love 
for his step-mother was often manifested in later years by 
frequent gifts of money and frequent visits. 

He took odd jobs in the country round and the pay 
was all his own. In 1831, he went to New Orleans on a 
flat-boat which he helped to build. The boat was 
launched on the Sangamon, stranded on a dam, and re- 
lieved by Lincoln's ingenuity, and started again on a sue- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 19 

cessful voyage, laden with pork, hogs and corn. It was 
on this trip that his reflective mind evolved an invention 
for helping flat-boats over snags and shoals. The inven- 
tion was patented, but like many another patent, failed 
to enrich the owner. It was on this trip that Lincoln 
observed for the first time some of the abominations of 
the slave trade in the City of New Orleans. It depressed 
him and drew from him the emphatic, almost prophetic 
statement, "If I ever get a chance to hit slavery, I'll hit 
it hard." 

He found his way back to New Salem where he kept 
store for the same employer that sent him to New Orleans. 
There he won his way to consideration by his genial ways, 
his gift of story telling, and his strength and skill in 
wrestling. There, too, he found an English grammar 
and mastered it by the light of pine shavings,in the long 
evening hours. 

In 1832, the Black Hawk War broke out. Lincoln en- 
listed, and though without military experience, his pop- 
ularity won him the captaincy of his company by popu- 
lar election. His career as an officer was not a brilliant 
one. His command w T as an unsoldierly company of 
American citizens who respected their captain, but who 
were unwilling to subject themselves to very strict disci- 
pline. They did no fighting and were discharged from 
service after a brief campaign, and Lincoln re-enlisted as 
a private in the Independent Spy Company. He was 
wont afterwards to excite much amusement by his stories 
of this bloodless war. Yet it was a school to him that 
revealed his relations to his country and helped to fit him 



20 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



for the great duties of Commander in-Chief in the War 
of the Rebellion. 

Returning to New Salem after the war, his friends 
urged him, in view of his popularity in the recent war, 



A i 



; !*^' 








Lincoln's Pioneer House on the Sangamon River. 
Built and Occupied by Himself. 

to become a candidate for the State Legislature. His ap- 
pearance in debate, and the favorable impression he made, 
settled the question of his candidacy for his friends. He 
felt that an election was an impossibility for him at that 
time, but he undertook the canvass. It was the custom 
then for every candidate to stand on his own merits with- 
out the aid of a nominating convention. 



Mr. Lincoln at 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 2i 

this time was nominally a Jackson Democrat, though 
some of his statements in his first campaign for office re- 
sembled very closely Whig utterances, and he will be 
found speedily to be on that side. 

He issued a manifesto to the people of Sangamon 
County on the question of local improvements, propos- 
ing the improvement of the Sangamon River. He an- 
nounced himself in favor of usury laws which would limit 
the rate of interest to be paid in the state. He was in fa- 
vor of education, and of the enactment of sundry laws that 
would benefit the farming community in which he lived. 
His manifesto was that of a crude and immature states- 
man — or better, perhaps, of a young politician, seeking 
to adjust himself to the popular opinions about him and 
to reach public office thereby. He was defeated at the 
election, but he had the satisfaction of knowing, that the 
people who knew him best gave him their votes. The 
canvass, however, gave him a wider acquaintance with 
the people of the district and established him in their 
eyes as a young man of considerable promise. 

In default of a political opening, the question of his 
future career pressed upon him. He could earn a poor 
livelihood with his brawny arms, but to this he was in- 
disposed, feeling, as he did, that there was a larger des- 
tiny before him than of mere manual labor. He tried 
clerking in a store, then merchandising on credit, which 
last experience ended disastrously and left him a burden 
of debt. Then he began the study of law, with borrowed 
books. He put his new knowledge into practice by writ- 
ing deeds, contracts, notes and other legal papers for his 



22 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

neighbors, following prescribed forms, and conducting 
small cases in justice's courts without remuneration. 
This was his law school, self-conducted. Volumes on sci- 
ence were at the same time eagerly devoured by him, and 
the few newspapers on which he could lay hands were 
the sources of his political information. Burns and 
Shakespeare were his especial delight. 

To pay his way, he won the good opinion of the sur- 
veyor of Sangamon Count)', who appointed him dep- 
uty, and gave him a chance to acquire a knowledge of 
surveying, in which he became an expert. He was called 
hither and yon about the county as a surveyor, and was 
made arbiter in disputes on lines and corners. Best of 
all, he earned a good living and made many friends for 
the future. 

From 1833 to 1836, he was postmaster of New Salem, 
as a Jackson appointee on the score of right opinions. 
The emoluments of the position were not burdensome. 
He kept his office in his hat. 

In 1834, he was again a candidate for the Legislature. 
This time he leaned to the Whig party. It was during 
this year that his personal effects, including his survey- 
ing instruments, were sold under the hammer by the 
sheriff to satisfy a judgment against him on account of 
his unsuccessful career as a merchant. But warm per- 
sonal friendship intervened to save his property and keep 
him in courage for the work of his life. 

The campaign of 1834 was personally conducted, as 
was that of 1832. In the harvest field, at the grocery or 
on the highway, wherever he could find men to listen, 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 23 

he interested them in his cause and his personality, 
chiefly the latter. Where he was known he was wel- 
comed, and where he found it necessary to make himself 
known, his auditors soon made the discovery that he 
belonged to the singed cat variety. With his calico 
shirt, short trousers, rough brogans, and straw hat with- 
out a band, he raised a laugh at his appearance that was 
soon turned to applause at his knowledge and his skill 
in presenting it. He headed the poll on election day, 
and appreciating the fact that a new outfit was necessary 
to comport with his dignity as a legislator, he borrowed 
two hundred dollars from Coleman Smoot, an admirer 
who had never seen him, and got himself up in the best 
clothes he had ever worn. The loan was scrupulously 
repaid. The time up to the session of the Legislature 
was spent in preparation for his new responsibilities, in 
reading and writing. 

He had enough of his two hundred dollars remaining 
to pay his passage on the stage coach to the scene of the 
Legislature at Vandalia. That body was overwhelming- 
ly Democratic in its political complexion, and set the 
pace for Illinois of that class of legislation so common 'in 
new countries: the creation of public debt and the 
starting of great and ill-considered public improvements, 
and the licensing of banks with great privileges, and 
practically no guarantees, a class of legislation that 
brought on the financial collapse of 1837. The legisla- 
ture represented the overwhelming majority of the people 
and accomplished their behests. All were crazed with 
the spirit of speculation, all were similarly responsible, 



24 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

and all suffered in the same general consequences. Mr. 
Lincoln swam with the stream, voted for all the wild-cat 
measures which, according to the best wisdom of the 
time, were essential to the prosperity of the state. He 

was a silent 
member, how- 
ever, at this ses- 
sion of the Leg- 
islature, though 
he served on 
the committee 
on Public Ac- 
counts and Ex- 
penditures. 

It was at this 
session of the 
legislature that 
he met Stephen 
A. Douglas, with 
whose later ca- 
reer his own 
was destined to 
be so closely in- 
terwoven, and 
whom at his first meeting he characterized as the "least 
man he ever saw." In time he readily accorded him the 
title of "The Little Giant, 1 ' with whose powers he, only, 
seemed able to cope. This legislature was beset, as lat- 
er legislatures of Illinois have been, by a corrupt and 
persistent body of so-called log rollers, who were on 




Stephen A. Douglas. 
Born 1813. Died 1861 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 25 

hand to push their schemes by persuasion and corrupt- 
ion. But no taint attached to young Lincoln, who, if 
he were carried away like the other legislators of the 
time, by schemes of artificial prosperity, was beyond the 
reach of briber}-. 

In 1836, he was again a candidate for the legislature, 
self-nominated, for this was before the age of caucuses 
and conventions. In the Journal of New Salem he an- 
nounces his platform. He favors extending to all whites 
who pay taxes or bear arms (not excluding women) the 
right of suffrage. If elected, he should consider the 
whole people of the district as his constituents, regard- 
less of the manner of their voting, and while acting as 
their representative he would be governed by their will 
on all subjects on which they should make known their 
will, and 011 other subjects he would follow his own 
judgment as to what would advance their interests. He 
further announced that lie was in favor of distributing 
the proceeds of the sales of public lands to the several 
states, to enable each state in common with others, to 
dig canals and construct railroads without borrowing- 
money and paying the interest on it. On the question 
of national politics, he announced his adhesion to the 
standard bearer of the Whigs. 

. For two months the campaign was conducted in the 
rough and ready manner peculiar to those times. Hot 
words were bandied, personalities were indulged in, pis- 
tols were frequently drawn, and the personal prowess of 
the candidate was one of his strong claims to the respect 
of a rough constituency. At no point was Lincoln lack- 



26 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

ing in his knowledge of his audiences. They had had 
demonstrations of his physical prowess. Popular re- 
port had credited him with fearlessness, and his plain 
strong reasoning, his humor and skillful repartee did 
the rest. 

It was the custom for political antagonists to address 
the same audiences, or at least for both sides to get a 
hearing at the same time and place. It was during this 
campaign that Geo. Forquer, who had been a Whig in 
the legislature of 1834, and had changed his views on 
being appointed registrar of the Land Office, presumed 
to call Lincoln to account. Forquer had aroused much 
attention as a political turn-coat, and likewise by his 
sudden prosperity in being able to build the finest house 
in Springfield, on which he set up the only lightning 
rod of which the region could boast. He listened to 
Lincoln's speech in defense of the principles that he had 
recently repudiated, aud when he had finished he arose 
to answer, with a fine assumption of superiority, saying 
that the young man would have to be taken down, and 
he was sorry that the task devolved upon him. He there- 
upon proceeded to take him down in a strong Democratic 
speech. When he had concluded Mr. Lincoln replied to 
his arguments, and then alluded to Mr. Forquer's re- 
mark that the young man must be taken down. Turn- 
ing to his audience, he said: 

"It is for you to say whether I am down or up. The 
gentleman has alluded to my being a young man. I am 
older in years than I am in the tricks and trades of poli- 
ticians. I desire to live and I desire place and distinct- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 27 

ion as a politician, but I would rather die now than, like 
this gentleman, live to see the day that I would have to 
erect a lightning rod to protect a guilty conscience from 
an offended God." 

Another Democratic orator met his Waterloo in an en- 
gagement with Lincoln in the same campaign. Dick 
Taylor was severely Democratic in theory, denouncing 
the Whig aristocracy and making much of his sympathy 
with the hard-handed toiling masses, but in practice he 
adorned himself with splendid apparel, and shone con- 
spicuously with ruffled shirt, silk vest, and an impressive 
watch chain. On one occasion when Taylor was parad- 
ing his democracy and denouncing the aristocratic Whigs, 
Lincoln edged up to the platform, and gave a jerk to 
Taylor's vest, that exposed his ruffled shirt, his gold 
watch and chain and pendant jewelry. It was a move- 
ment that took all the wind out of Taylor's sails and 
hardly needed the speech which Mr. Lamon credits to 
this occasion, which has so much of personal interest in 
it, that we repeat it. 

"While Taylor was making his charges against the 
Whigs over the country, riding in fine carriages, wearing 
ruffled shirts, kid gloves, massive gold watch chain with 
large gold seals, and nourishing a heavy gold-headed 
cane, I was a poor boy hired on a flat-boat at eight dol- 
lars a month and had only one pair of breeches to my 
back, and they were buckskin, and if you know the na- 
ture of buckskin, when wet and dried by the sun, they 
will shrink, and mine kept shrinking until they left sev- 
eral inches of my legs bare between the top of my socks 



28 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

and the lower part of my breeches, and whilst I was 
growing taller, they were becoming shorter, and so much 
tighter that they left a bine streak around my legs that 
can be seen to this day. If yon call this aristocracy I 
rxlead guilty to the charge." 

Mr. Lincoln was elected by a larger vote than any 
other candidate. Sangamon County, that had usually 
gone Democratic, went Whig by more than four hundred 
majority. The Convention System was now taking root 
in the west. Some of the members of the legislature of 
1836 and 1837, among whom was Stephen A. Douglas, 
were nominated by conventions, and hereafter the Whigs 
are compelled to fall into line. Elections are to be con- 
ducted no more on the self-nominating plan and person- 
ally conducted canvass. But national issues and national 
parties are to control in state affairs. This change, in the 
minds of many, was prejudicial to the real interests of 
state affairs and certainly detracted much from the gro- 
tesqueness and individuality displayed in the self-nominat- 
ing anel self-conducted campaign. Men now stood upon 
the platform of a party, when they accepted a nomination. 
Mr. Lincoln was hereafter to be a part)' man, sometimes 
leading his party, but all the time loyal to it, and seeking 
to force no movement until the rank and file of his party 
were abreast with him. 

In national politics, at the time of the meeting of the 
legislature of 1836-37, the country was on the verge of a 
panic. The deposits of the United States had been with- 
drawn from the U. S. Bank and deposited in specie-pay- 
ing state banks. The whigs had passed an act requiring 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 29 

the funds of the government to be deposited with the 
states, the act to go into effect Jan. 1st, 1837. A month 
before this date the Legislature of Illinois met at Van- 
dalia. Thither Mr. Lincoln went with the intention of 
being an active member, He had been instructed by 
his constituents to vote for a system of internal improve- 
ments. All parts of the state were clamoring for them 
and men of all parties were of one mind in the matter. 
Lines of railroads, improvement of rivers, the Illinois 
cana], and the location of the capital and the setting up 
of state banks, were the great questions of the session. 
Members of the legislature interested in one locality 
swapped votes to other localities for votes in favor of 
their project. Thus the log-rolling went on till nearly 
every county in the state shared in the plunder of their 
common treasury which was recruited by issues of bonds 
that ought to have paralyzed any sane company of leg- 
islators who could foresee the consequences; but they 
were intoxicated by the spirit of speculation. 

Among the schemes in which Mr. Lincoln chiefly fig- 
ured was the removal of the capital to Springfield. As 
a member of the Long Nine from Sangamon County — so 
called because their average height was over six feet — he 
so skillfully disposed of the votes of himself and his col- 
leagues, in return for votes on behalf of Springfield, that 
that city was selected as the capital of the state. Ford 
estimates, in his u History of Illinois," that it was made to 
cost the state six millions of dollars for the removal of 
the capital from Vandalia, and naming the men who 
participated in this reckless legislation and the high po- 



3° 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



3fe 



sitions to which most of them later attained, he declares 
all of them to be "spared monuments of popular wrath, 
evincing how safe it is to a politician, but how disas- 
trous-it may be to the country to keep along with the 
present fervor of the people." 

Mr. Lincoln, in his part in the proceedings of the leg- 
islature, obeyed the will 
of his constituents in lo- 
cating the capital at 
Springfield, and the will 
of the people at large in 
voting for a general sys- 
tem of improvements at 
the public expense, and 
his own judgment was 
committed to the policy. 
The fruition of their reck- 
less legislation was debt 
and disaster,all had sinned 
^ and all suffered, and the 

Library Chair used by Lincoln during his penalties Were llOt visited 
Occupancy of the White House. i 

upon the legislators who 
recorded the popular will. More creditable to Lincoln's 
mind and heart at this session of the state legisla- 
ture was the protest in which he joined, against the act- 
ion of the legislature on the subject of slavery. No 
state was more pronounced than Illinois on the subject of 
repressing the Abolition movement. Illinois had de- 
cided once for all, in 1824, that it was not disposed 
to become a slave state, but its people had no sympathy 





ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 31 

as yet with the movement to interfere with slavery in the 
South. The name Abolitionist was counted by the peo- 
ple of Illinois as hardly better than Horse- thief and the 
so-called Black Code of the state, discriminating against 
negroes whether free or slave would have been a disgrace 
to Turkey. 

In 1836, Elijah P. Lovejoy, who had been publishing 
a moderately anti-slavery paper in St. Louis, moved to 
Alton, where he found the opposition even stronger than 
in Missouri, and his press was broken up and thrown into 
the river. He again set up his press which was to pub- 
lish a religious paper, and not distinctively an abolition 
paper, though he claimed the right as an American citi- 
zen to publish whatever he pleased on any subject, hold- 
ing himself answerable to the laws of the country in so 
doing. Only occasionally, did he discuss the subject of 
slavery, but so repugnant was abolition sentiment to the 
people about him that his office was again destroyed. The 
setting up of another press was followed by his murder 
in defence of his life and his property. It was during 
this state of feeling, that culminated in Lovejoy's mur- 
der, that Lincoln bravely wrote a protest against the ex- 
treme action of the legislature on the slavery question, 
and obtained the signature thereto of a colleague with his 
own. The resolutions were read and ordered to bespread 
upon the journal of the house. In these resolutions he 
stated that he believed that the institution of slavery is 
founded upon injustice and bad policy, but that the pro- 
mulgation of abolition doctrine tends rather to increase 
than to abate its evils. That the Congress of the United 



32 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

States has no power under the Constitution to interfere 
with the institution of slavery in the different states. 

That the Congress of the United States has the power 
under the Constitution to abolish slavery in the District 
of Columbia, but that the jower ought not to be exer- 
cized unless at the request of the people of the district. 
On this question he saw clearer than his colleagues and 
came nearest to the view of wise statesmanship that at 
that stage of the game would make the abolition of slav- 
ery the result of growth and of the logic of events, rather 
than the result of upheaval and revolution. We do not 
decry the work of the abolitionists, nor would he in his 
later years. They preached the iniquity of slavery and 
roused the moral sense of the nation for the final strup-ode 
when the hand that wrote the protest of 1838 might 
write the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, with a 
possibility of its enforcement. Between these documents 
lies, perhaps, the most critical period of American his- 
tory. Lincoln is at length to be the foremost figure of 
that period, moving without haste, but steadily, to the 
accomplishment of that supreme act which the impatient 
Abolitionist would have performed at once, regardless of 
the wreck and ruin which the attempt at immediate en- 
forcement of his policy would work. 

Mr. Lincoln was again elected to the legislature in 
1838, and had reached such prominence that he was the 
candidate of his party for speaker. He was not elected, 
but remained on the finance committee and took a hand 
in trying to extricate the state from the almost hopeless 
bankruptcy into which it had been plunged by the ex- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 33 

travagant legislation of 1836 and ^7- Mr - Lincoln was 
elected again in 1840, but did not appear in the session 
of 1 841 and 1842 for reasons of a private nature. His 
early love for Ann Rutledge had met with disappoint- 
ment and he mourned over her grave with a heart well- 
nigh broken. Others had excited his interest, but the 
old love was the ideal love for him, and no later affection 
could compare with it, so that although he believed it 
was proper for him to settle down in married life, his loy- 
alty to such affection as he had known, and his honorable 
character, made it difficult for him to assume the vows of 
married life on any other basis than full and complete 
devotion to the woman whom he should call his wife. 

In 1839, he was thrown much in the society of Miss 
Mary Todd of Lexington, Ky., and he became engaged 
to her. The date of the wedding was set, but he did not 
appear. His struggle with himself as to whether he was 
doing right well-nigh unsettled his mind, and his friends 
withdrew him to the quiet of Mr. Speed's home in Ken- 
tucky, till this crisis of his history should pass. When he 
returned, his relations to Miss Todd were resumed. She 
was a clever writer, with some taste for politics, and dur- 
ing the period of their courtship they beguiled them- 
selves with political writing in the Sangamon Journal un- 
der the nom de plume of u Rebecca." The letters were 
cleverly done in the style of caricature and bore hard upon 
Mr. James Shields, an aspiring Democratic politician of 
somewhat pompous and pretending manner. Mr. Lin- 
coln chivalrously assumed the sole authorship of the let- 
ters, for the protection of Miss Todd, and speedily found 



34 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

himself embroiled with Mr. Shields, who demanded sat- 
isfaction. Nothing but a duel or an abject apology 
would be accepted, and the mutual friends of Mr. Lincoln 
and Mr. Shields were kept busy arranging the prelimi- 
naries of a contest. Mr. Lincoln treated the matter with 
indifference, chose broadswords as the weapons, and 
agreed upon the time and place for meeting, with little 
thought that the duel would ever come off. He was op- 
posed to dueling, and in choosing the weapons, he avoided 
pistols to avert a tragedy, and chose cavalry broadswords, 
knowing, as Arnold says, that if the meeting should take 
place nothing but a tragedy could have prevented its be- 
ing a farce. The matter was adjuste'd by the publication 
of a statement that while Mr. Lincoln was the author of 
the article signed "Rebecca," he had no intention of injur- 
ing the personal or private character or standing of Mr. 
Shields as a gentleman or man, and that he did not 
think that the article could produce such an effect, and 
had Mr. Lincoln anticipated such an effect he would 
have forborne to write it. Thus this serio-comic affair 
passed with little result save to emphasize the vanity 
and sensitiveness of Gen. Shields, and the cleverness and 
candor of Mr. Lincoln. 

Mr. Lincoln carried out his engagement with Mary 
Todd, and was married to her in November, 1842, with 
forebodings that did not promise well for a happy married 
life. Possibly, as Mr. Lincoln feared, they were not alto- 
gether fitted for each other. But never, by word or deed, 
was he disloyal to his marriage vows, nor did he ex- 
pose the wounds of his heart. 



~ 





36 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

He was not able at this time to provide a home of his 
own, but took np his residence at the Globe Tavern in 
Springfield at an expense of four dollars a week for board 
and lodging 1 for himself and wife. Mr. Lincoln had been 
licensed as an attorney in 1837, and had removed to 
Springfield when that city became the capital of the state. 
Among the men who were his compeers, some of whom 
afterwards attained prominence, were Stephen T. Logan, 
Stephen A. Douglas, E. D. Baker, John T.Stuart, Ninian 
W. Edwards, Jesse B. Thomas, and others of local re- 
nown. 

Mr. Lincoln's reputation, thus far, has been as a poli- 
tician in Sangamon Co. Politics will continue to have 
the chief fascination for his mind, but law will be his 
profession and his means of livelihood. He found his 
first law partner in his friend John T. Stuart, to whom he 
had previously been indebted for the loan of books from 
which to learn the law. In a little dingy office in the 
then unkempt town of Springfield, the firm of Stuart & 
Lincoln was installed, and Lincoln began his career of 
divided interest between politics and law. He was still 
a member of the legislature, and though the affairs of the 
state were in sad need of attention, the politics of the 
time began to be confined to national issues, and Mr. Lin- 
coln, like the rest, began to occupy himself with a sur- 
vey of national affairs. 

In January, 1837, he delivered an address before the 
Springfield Lyceum on the Perpetuation of our Free In- 
stitutions, which shows that the young lawyer had now 
attained to the full consciousness and dignity of an Amer- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 37 

ican Citizen, who prizes his birth-right and seeks calmly 
to discern the perils of the nation, and earnestly to put 
her in a position of security and permanence. This 
speech marks him at that early date, as more than a pol- 
itician, grabbing and compromising in the state assembly 
for local interests; rather as an American citizen open- 
ing his eyes to the greatness of the nation, the difficulties 
and the clangers that hazard the common weal. 

i\s his physical vision overtopped that of his fellows, 
so now he seems to look out on a broader political hori- 
zon than they. His eye henceforth will not be with- 
drawn from that wide view until all shall be clear to 
him, and he shall be accepted as his nation's prophet and 
seer. The speech to which I refer may be overcharged 
with rhetoric, a vice that is common with young orators, 
but it has the true ring of sincerity and patriotism, and 
time will add the charm and force of directness and sim- 
plicity to his style. 

In all the political campaigns of the time his voice was 
heard in the meetings of politicians, in the grocery, or the 
office or on the rostrum. He was a central figure in these 
meetings. He studied politics, got in shape his argu- 
ments, and learned the art of putting things to an aver- 
age American audience, as few politicians have acquired 
it. The question of the sub-treasury was an absorbing 
question of 1840. It was the Democratic party measure 
to provide for the convenient and safe keeping of the na- 
tional funds. It has proved a wise expedient, but Mr. 
Lincoln opposed it, as did his party. Apparently, on 
questions of public credit, fiscal expedients and finance, 



38 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

he was not destined to be an authority. It was on the 
questions of freedom and union, and the measures that 
make for them, that he was to specialize and succeed. 
Meanwhile, he was working hard at the bar, but leaving 
no opportunity unused to evince his interest in politics. ' 

In 1843, he aspired to run for Congress, but was dis- 
tanced in the race for the Whig nomination by E. D. 
Baker. He was appointed a delegate to the nominating 
convention, and magnanimously served. He humorous- 
ly alludes to his predicament in writing to his friend 
Speed, where he says, "In getting Baker the nomination 
I shall be fixed a good deal like a fellow who is made 
groomsman to a man that has cut him out and is marry- 
ing his own dear 'gal.' " 

In 1844, he was a candidate for election on the Whig 
ticket, and stumped the state for Mr. Clay for President. 
In joint debates and independent speeches he maintained 
his Whig principles and chivalrously labored for the 
idol of his party. The defeat of Clay was, to him, a 
source of sorrow, but setting aside his political disap- 
pointment, he studiously set himself to the discharge of 
his professional duties until 1846, when he was nomina- 
ted for Congress and elected. Peter Cartwright was the 
standard-bearer of the opposition. He was a doughty 
antagonist, whose clerical relations were dead weight 
upon him, and Mr. Lincoln easily "got the preacher" as 
he expressed it, and with the aid of Democratic votes. 
He was the only Whig member from Illinois, and thus 
came into special prominence. Some of his colleagues 
from the state were Wentworth, McClernand, Ficklin, 



ABRAHAM LINXOLN. 



39 



Richardson and Turner. Douglas had just reached the 
Senate. 

The roll of the house at this, the 30th Congress, 
showed a galaxy of great names. Robert Winthrop was 
the Speaker, and among the Whigs were John Ouincy 
Adams, Horace Mann, Colla- 
mer, Stephens and Toombs; 
and among the Democrats 
were Wilmot and Cobb, Mc- 
Dowell and Andrew Johnson, 
while Webster and Calhoun, 
and Benton and Clayton were 
members of the Senate. 

Lincoln at once took an act-, 7 : 
ive part in the discussions 
that related to the Mexican 
War, that scheme of the 
Southern statesmen to acquire 
more territory for the ex- 
pansion of slavery. He held, as did the Whigs, that the 
war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally begun, 
and in his famous "Spot Resolutions," he called upon 
the president to put his finger on the spot on American 
soil on which the Mexicans were aggressors, as the 
president had alleged. Mr. Lincoln did, however, vote 
with his party to give supplies to the troops and thanks 
to the generals who conducted the war, while censuring 
the president for his part in bringing it on. Mr. Lin- 
coln had a weary time explaining to his constituents 
what they considered his inconsistency in attacking the 




Andrew Johnson. 
Born lBOd. Died 1875. 



40 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

president for bringing on the war and then voting sup- 
plies for its conduct, Before his return from the east 
and after the session of Congress, he made several cam- 
paign speeches in New England, enlarged his acquaint- 
ance and became more familiar with the elements that 
should enter into future politics. 

His second session passed without any striking inci- 
dent save one that indicated his attitude to the slavery 
question. On the Wilmot Proviso, which favored the 
purchase of Mexican territory and prohibiting of slavery 
thereon, he voted, as often as it was up, in the affirma- 
tive, and he himself proposed a resolution for the gradu- 
al compensated emancipation of slaves in the District of 
Columbia. Thus ended his congressional career in 
which, in the national arena, he had gained a unique 
outlook on public affairs, and where he won some repu- 
tation as a consistent Whig, loyal to his party, and op- 
posed to the extension of slavery; and likewise as a po- 
litical antagonist, clear in statement, fertile in illustra- 
tion, and with a talent for ridicule and sarcasm that was 
difficult to be reckoned with. He easily yielded the 
nomination to the next Congress to his friend, Stephen 
T. Logan, and continued the practice of law, but with 
an abiding interest in national affairs, ready when the 
time should again come, to take his part in the struggle. 

From 1848 to i860, his chief work as a lawyer w T as to 
be done, and likewise the work that should determine 
his selection as a candidate for the presidency of the 
United States. In i860, the scene of his legal services 
lay in the eighth judicial circuit in which Sangamon 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 41 

County was included till 1859. ^he conr t intinerated 
from county to county, and Mr. Lincoln followed it, 
first on a borrowed horse, then on a nag of his own, which 
he cared for himself, and later, in a second-hand buggy. 
His coming was always welcomed at the hotel where he 
was wont to stop and by the lawyers on the circuit. . Un- 
complaining, genial and unselfish, he met the incidents 
and inconveniences of this itinerant life in so cheerful a 
manner, and his pranks and stories were so enjoyable, 
that outside of the court room and in it, no one was more 
popular than he. His honesty was a proverb. No shady 
case had any standing or encouragement from him. Pov- 
erty was no bar to the securement of his services, and 
when he entered on a case to which his judgment and 
conscience were committed he entered upon it with a 
thoroughness and fearlessness which seldom met with 
failure. 

Judge Caton, for many years one of the judges of the 
Supreme Court and intimate with Mr. Lincoln, says of 
him: "He was a close reasoner, reasoning by analogy and 
usually enforcing his views by apt illustrations. His 
mode of speaking was generally of a plain and unimpas- 
sioned character, yet abounding with eloquence, imagin- 
ation and fancy. His great reputation for integrity was 
well deserved. The most punctilious honor ever marked 
his professional and private life. He seemed entirely ig- 
norant of the art of deception and dissimulation. His 
frankness and candor were elements which contributed to 
his professional success. If he discovered a weak point 
in his cause he frankly admitted it and thereby prepared 



42 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the mind to accept the more readily his mode of avoid- 
ing it. No one ever accused him of taking an unfair or 
underhanded advantage in the whole course of his pro- 
fessional career." 

He put the kindest construction possible on the frail- 
ties of his fellow men. He sympathized with the un- 
fortunate, and relieved- them to the utmost of his ability 
in their distress. He was true as steel to his clear appre- 
hension of intellectual and moral truth, unyielding in 
matters of honor and principle. He could flay an adver- 
sary relentlessly who by cowardice or meanness, by ma- 
lice or greed, exposed himself to his denunciation. He 
could be tender as a woman to misfortune or suffering. 
He was wondrously constituted to be a great jury lawyer 
with his power of analysis, his logical faculties, his gen- 
erous sympathies, his apt illustration, his candor and his 
irresistable humor. 

He was offered a lucrative partnership in Chicago with 
Grant Goodrich on his return from congress, but he pre- 
ferred his old circuit and his old companions. Though 
he was frequently called to the trial of cases in prominent 
courts in his own and other states, and responded to the 
call, his heart was with his comrades on his old circuit, 
and he could not be tempted from it. The day before 
he left Springfield for Washington, in 1861, he went to 
the office to settle up some unfinished business. After 
disposing of it he gathered a bundle of papers and books 
he wished to take with him. Presently he addressed Mr. 
Herndon, his old partner: 

"Billy, how long have we been together?" 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 43 

"Over sixteen years," he answered. , 

"We've never had a cross word during all that time, 
have we?" 

Then, starting to go, lie paused and asked that the 
sign-board of Lincoln & Herndon which hung- on its 
rusty hinges at the foot of the stairs be allowed to re- 
main. 

"Let it hang there undisturbed," he said, with a 
significant lowering of his voice. "Give our clients to 
understand that the election of a president makes no 
change in the firm of Lincoln & Herndon. If I live I 
am coming back sometime and then we'll go right on 
practicing law as if nothing had happened." 

If Lincoln had had no other career than as a lawyer in 
Central Illinois, he would have occupied a unique place 
among the great lawyers of the state. But his mind was 
always at work upon the higher problems of the national 
life. He declined to run for congress in 184S in favor of 
Stephen T. Logan, who suffered defeat. He declined the 
governorship of Oregon, preferring to remain in closer 
touch with national affairs in Illinois, than he would be 
if he removed to that distant region. 

In 1850, he again declined to be a candidate for con- 
gress, though he was strongly urged. He was coming to 
the opinion that the sectional agitation between the North 
and South was beyond the skill of politicians to settle 
by the methods that had been and were still, being 
tried. He had hoped that time would heal the animosi- 
ties that threatened the existence of the union and the 
principles of free government on American soil. In con- 



•>; 




Lincoln's Home at Springfield. 

In front of the house stands the tree planted by Lincoln previous 

to 1850. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 45 

versation with intimate friends, in 1850, he stated that, 
"the time is coming when we must all be Democrats or 
Abolitionists." Though he acquiesced in the measures 
of the Whig party, which were favorable to compromise 
to avert strife, he spoke out his own conviction as to the 
injustice of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, and seemed 
to feel disheartened as to any improvement as things 
were going. 

In 1852, his fellow citizens at Springfield chose him to 
deliver a eulogy upon the life and services of Henry Clay. 
This discourse was not remarkable in itself, save as it 
was the occasion to Mr. Lincoln for emphasizing the 
opinion of Mr. Clay in regard to slavery and the proper 
method of putting an end to it. Mr. Lincoln agreed 
with him in his aversion to the institution and the advis- 
ability of gradual emancipation by the voluntary action 
of the people of the slave states, and the transporting of 
the freedmen to Africa. Compensated and voluntary 
emancipation and transportation were the features of 
his plan, and he hoped that it might be realized. Then, 
assuming the tones and language of a prophet, he said: 

"Pharaoh's country was cursed with plagues and his 
hosts were drowned into the Red Sea for striving to retain 
a captive people who had already served them more than 
four hundred years. May like disaster never befall us. 
If, as the friends of colonization hope, the present and 
coining generations of our countrymen shall by any means 
succeed in freeing our land from the dangerous presence 
of slavery, and at the same time restoring a captive peo- 
ple to their long lost fatherland with bright prospects for 



46 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

the future, and this, too, so gradually that neither races 
nor individuals shall have suffered by the change, it will 
indeed be a glorious consummation." 

If only that policy could have prevailed what sacrifice 
of human blood and treasure, what agony and sorrow, it 
might have saved! But it was not to be. 

The Fugitive Slave Law had been passed and in the 
Dred Scott Decision, not only was that law to be upheld, 
but the most extravagant demands of slavery were to be 
confirmed by the highest court in the land. Measures 
were to be set on foot to open the territories north cf 36 . 
30" to the spread of slavery. The Missouri Compromise 
was to be repealed and the agent of this legislation, its 
crafty and eloquent advocate, was to be a son of Illinois, 
the early compeer and antagonist of Mr. Lincoln, Stephen 
A. Douglas. His rise in politics had been phenomenal. 
His abilities were great and his ambition more than kept 
pace w 7 ith them. His objective point was the presidency 
of the United States. If he could become the candidate 
of a united Democracy for that high office, the coveted 
prize was within his reach. To this end, he lent his great 
abilities to the carrying of those measures that would be 
acceptable to the pro-slavery element of the nation. He 
identified himself actively with every move'ment that 
sought to increase the area of territory for slavery expan- 
sion. He held with Calhoun and Davis that, under the 
Constitution, slaveholders could take their slaves into the 
territories of the United States, subject only to the Mis- 
souri Compromise. This obstruction, as chairman of the 
committee on territories, he desired to set aside in the 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 47 

Kansas-Nebraska Bill, which opened that vast area of 
land to settlers who could vote up or down the question 
of slavery, within their limit. With the passing of this 
bill, the period of compromise was over. Friends of 
Union and Freedom saw that there was now no prospect 
of peace without submission to the extravagant and re- 
volting pretensions of the pro-slavery party. 

It was now that Mr. Lincoln girded himself for the 
great contest of his life, and at once, as if by common 
consent, he became the leader of the Anti-Nebraska party, 
as Mr. Douglas was the leader of the opposing party in 
the North, and attention was fastened on these two great 
antagonists whose strife should continue until freedom or 
slavery should prevail. It was in October, 1854, that 
they first measured weapons at the Illinois State fair. 
Mr. Douglas defended his position with his usual ability 
and Mr. Lincoln was put up to answer him. There was 
a marked contrast in the men. One was small of stature 
but of great physical force, a successful demagogue, a 
skilled debater, ready and resourceful, ambitious for pow- 
er, contending for measures abhorent to the spirit of free 
institutions as a means to the accomplishment of his am- 
bitions. 

Mr. Lincoln was stalwart, angular, and plain, not de- 
void of ambition, but resolutely opposed to the gaining 
of a single foot of American soil for the extension or per- 
petuation of slavery. He attacked the positions of Mr. 
Douglas with clearness and force. He so completely un- 
covered his purposes that he carried his audience captive, 
and his speech was so permeated with intense moral con- 



48 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

viction, that he often quivered with emotion in its utter- 
ance. Others addressed the people that day, but to Mr. 
Lincoln was awarded the honor of having pierced the 
armor of his antagonist, and of having won the right to 
carry the standard of freedom into the battle that could 
not be averted. 

The Abolitionists of the state now sought to commit 
him fully to their programme. They felt that in his 
Anti-Nebraska utterances he was with them and ought 
to declare himself fully, but he avoided them. The time 
for him had not yet come. In the fullness of time he 
could be more useful to the cause of union and freedom 
by a conservative record than if he had been open to the 
charge of being a fanatical abolitionist. On the question 
of the Anti-Nebraska Bill he could take strong ground, 
and he followed Mr. Douglas to Peoria to repeat the same 
triumph in debate as at Springfield. 

In 1854, in spite of his unwillingness, he was elected 
to the Illinois Legislature. A senator was to be elected 
at that session in place of General Shields, and Lincoln 
now aspired to that poskion. There was an Anti-Ne- 
braska majority of two on joint ballot, but some of them 
were pronounced Abolitionists, for whom Mr. Lincoln's 
position was not sufficiently advanced, and five were Dem- 
ocrats, who preferred to vote for a senator with antece- 
dents like their own. To the Abolitionists, Mr. Lincoln 
easily pledged himself to vote for the exclusion of slavery 
in all territories of the LTnited States. Matteson, the Dem- 
ocratic candidate, was almost elected. The Anti-Ne- 
braska Democrats would probably vote for him on the 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 4 9 

next ballot in preference to a Whig like Lincoln. 
In this emergency Mr. Lincoln magnanimously said 
to the Whigs, "You ought to drop me and go for Trum- 
bull. That is the only way you can defeat Matteson. 
The cause in this case is to be preferred to men." 

Mr. Lincoln was reserved for the conspicuous cam- 
paign of 1 858, when he should contest for senatorial hon- 
ors with Mr. Douglas and discuss the great issues of slav- 
ery extension in the hearing of the nation. Meanwhile, 
the bloody conflicts between the freedom loving settlers of 
Kansas, and the border ruffians, took place, and the North 
became aroused over the plan of the pro-slavery men to 
foist pro-slavery constitutions upon the territories that 
should seek admission to the union. For these events, Mr. 
Lincoln held Mr.Douglas responsible,and he likewise held 
fast to the conservative position that the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise was an act of bad faith, and that 
slavery should not be extended into territories heretofore 
free. 

The first national convention of the Republican party 
met in February, 1856, and made its platform on the lines 
of Mr. Lincoln's contention on the subject of slavery. 
His prominence in the eye of the party was evinced by 
the fact that from that convention he received no votes 
for the vice-presidency. His voice was heard during the 
campaign, discussing the great issues of the time. In 
1858, a Democratic state convention met in Illinois, 
which besides nominating a state ticket, indorsed the 
name of Stephen A. Douglas as his own successor in the 
senate. That crafty politician had begun to have doubts 



50 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

as to whether the Lecompton constitution was the act 
and deed of the people of Kansas, and sought to recall the 
support of the people of his state, who were estranged from 
him by the violence that had been introduced in Kansas. 
In the effort to restrain the friends of freedom from freely 
voting upon the issues that were really before them, it 
was even suggested that Mr. Douglas was on his way to 
the Republican fold. 

Mr. Lincoln was not deceived by "Sir. Douglas's change 
of attitude. There w r as an election of senator in the next 
year in the state of Illinois, and the two candidates were 
the author of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill and his most con- 
spicuous opponent. If this prize should not slip from 
Air. Douglas's grasp, he must disavow some of the fruits 
of his labor on behalf of slavery, and thus retain enough 
of his former supporters for his election. It was upon 
his record as a tool of slavery to open the territories to 
that institution, and upon the ground of his inconsistency 
in presenting the doctrine of popular sovereignty, that 
Mr. Lincoln assailed him in his candidacy for the Lmited 
States Senate. 

In April, 1858, a Democratic state convention met in 
Illinois and indorsed Mr. Douglas. He had so befogged 
many leading men of Illinois that they begged the Re- 
publicans to trust him, and put no one in nomination 
against him. Already Mr. Lincoln perceived that Air. 
Douglas had been crowded into a position that would ul- 
timately destroy his chances of leading a united Demo- 
cratic party in a national election, for in failing to uphold 
the Lecompton convention, and in representing in Illinois 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 51 

that popular sovereignity would demonstrate the ability 
of the territories to protect themselves from slavery, he 
created genuine alarm in the South. Mr. Lincoln's bat- 
tle was nearly won. It did not matter if Mr. Douglas 
should defeat him by his insincere scheming in 1858. A 
greater day of reckoning was coming in i860. 

On the 1 6th of June the Republican convention of Illi- 
nois passed a resolution unanimously declaring that" Abra- 
ham Lincoln is our first and only choice for United States 
Senator to fill the vacancy about to be created by the ex- 
piration of Mr. Douglas's term of office." On the evening 
of that day he locked his office door and produced the 
manuscript of a speech and read the opening paragraph 
to his partner, Mr. Herndon. When he had finished he 
looked into the astonished face of Mr. Herndon and asked 
him, "How do you like that?" 

It was the speech that was to be delivered before the 
Republican convention, avowing his candidacy for the 
Senate. The paragraph was as follows: 

"Gentlemen of the Convention: If we could first know 
where we are and whither we are tending, we could then 
better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now 
far on into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with 
the avowed object and confident promise, of putting an end 
to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, 
that agitation has not only not ceased but has constantly 
augmented. In my opinion it will not cease until a crisis 
has been reached and passed. 'A house divided against 
itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot 
endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not 



52 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

expect the Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the 
house to fall. But I do expect it will cease to be divid- 
ed. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either 
the opponents of slavery will arrest the farther spread of 
it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the 
belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or 
its adversaries will push it forward till it shall become 
alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new; North 
as well as South." 

Then followed a masterly review of the aggressive 
steps by which pro-slavery legislators had sought to ex- 
tend the institution, and the part that Mr. Douglas had 
played in it, and his present inconsistent attitude toward 
his party and his insincere overture to the Republican 
party. Then with the clarion peal of an acknowledged, 
trusted, and confident leader, he concluded: 

"Two years ago the Republicans of the nation mus- 
tered, over thirteen hundred thousand strong. We did 
this under the single impulse of resistance to a common 
danger, with every external circumstance against us. Of 
strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gath- 
ered from the four winds, and formed and fought the bat- 
tle through under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, 
proud and pampered enemy. Did we brave all that to 
fall now? Now, when that same enemy is wavering, dis- 
severed and belligerent? The result is not doubtful. We 
shall not fail: If we stand firm we shall not fail. Wise 
counsels may accelerate or mistakes delay it, but sooner 
or later the victory is sure to come." 

Mr. Herndon said, "Is it politic to speak it as it is 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 53 

written?" referring to the expression, "A house divided 
against itself cannot stand." 

Mr. Lincoln answered, "I want to use some universally 
known figure, expressed in simple language as universally 
known, that may strike home to the minds of men in or- 
der to rouse them to the peril of the times. I would 
rather be defeated with this expression in the speech, and 
it held up and discussed before the people, than to be vic- 
torious without it." 

Other friends were called in council. They thought 
his utterance impolitic and sure to lead to his defeat. Mr. 
Lincoln heard them patiently. Mr. Herndon was the 
only one who said: 

"Lincoln, deliver it just as it reads, the speech is true, 
wise, politic and will succeed now or in the future." 

Then Mr. Lincoln broke silence and said, "Friends, I 
have thought about the matter a great deal, have weighed 
the question well from all corners, and am thoroughly 
convinced the time has come when it should be uttered, 
and if it must be, that I must go down because of this 
speech, then let me go down linked to truth, die in the 
advocacy of what is right and just. This nation cannot 
live on injustice. 'A house divided against itself cannot 
stand,' I say again and again." 

He spoke these words with deep emotion. For him 
the die was cast. The speech was delivered. 

The Democrats thought he had dug his political grave. 
The conservative Republicans shrugged their shoulders. 
They thought it presaged defeat. The radical Republi- 
cans and the Abolitionists recognized in it the platform 



54 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

of the coming struggle, and the watchword of victory. 

Then followed the campaign with its joint meetings. 
It was the intellectual combat of Titans. Mighty as- 
semblies gathered all over the state, and the press of the 
nation reproduced the struggle so that the entire country 
witnessed the combat. The whole question of slavery, 
and Mr. Douglas's relation to it, was discussed, in a 
manner perfectly satisfactory to the friends of freedom 
and union. In the course of the campaign, with the 
shrewdness of the great lawyer that he was, Lincoln asked 
Mr. Douglas for a candid answer to four questions tlxat he 
might get an answer to one of them. That question was, 
"Can the people of a United States Territory in any law- 
ful way, against the wishes of any citizen of the United 
States, exclude slavery from its limits?" 

Mr. Douglas answered, "It matters not what way the 
Supreme Court may hereafter decide as to the abstract 
question, whether slavery may or may not go into a ter- 
ritory, under the Constitution. The people have the law- 
ful means to introduce or exclude it as they please, for 
the reason that slavery cannot exist a day or an hour 
anywhere unless it is supported by local police regula- 
tions. Those police regulations can only be established 
by the local legislature, and if the people are opposed to 
slavery they will elect representatives to that body who 
will, by unfriendly legislation, effectually prevent the in- 
troduction of it into their midst." 

The doctrine of "possible unfriendly legislation" 
alarmed and incensed the South. The wedge that had 
been started by Mr. Douglas's Anti- Uecompton attitude, 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 55 

was driven still deeper by the answer to this question. It 
presaged the sundering of the Democratic party in twain, 
and the triumph of the principles of Mr. Lincoln's Spring- 
field speech. The election that should determine the 
senator-ship took place Nov. 2, 1858. The ticket which 
Mr. Lincoln championed had four thousand more votes 
than the Democratic, but by an old and inequitable ap- 
portionment of the districts of the state, a majority of 
the law-makers chosen were Democrats. Mr. Douglas 
was re-elected. When asked how he felt over the re- 
sult, Mr. Lincoln answered that he felt like the boy that 
stubbed his toe. It hurt too bad to laugh and he was 
too big to cry. But he won a reputation as a debater 
that was a revelation to the nation. He was so strone, 
so fair, so temperate, so manly, in the great conflict, that 
he instantly took front rank among the national leaders 
who were devoted to the union and opposed to the ex- 
tension of slavery. 

On the 25th of February, i860, he was invited to New 
York, and delivered at Cooper Institute, before one of the 
most brilliant of American audiences, his masterly review 
of the political questions of the hour. His utterances were 
all that could be desired. The nation had made his ac- 
quaintance and acknowledged his power and worth. 

On May 9th and 10th, the Republican state convention 
of Illinois met at Decatur. Mr. Lincoln was present as 
a spectator, sitting quietly just within the door of the 
wigwam. Richard J. Oglesby was on the platform. He 
arose and stated: 

"I am informed that a distinguished citizen of Illinois 



56 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



and one whom Illinois will ever delight to honor, is pres- 
ent, and I wish to move that this body invite him to a 
seat on the stand." Here Mr. Oglesby paused, as if to 
tantalize his audience and arouse their curiosity, 

and then he announced 
the magic name of Abra- 
ham Lincoln. 

Pandemonium reigned 
for a while in that wig- 
wam. Then the motion 
was seconded and carried 
with tumultous shouts and 
Mr. Lincoln was carried 
over the heads of the au- 
dience to his place on the 
platform. Mr. Lincoln 
rose, smiled, bowed and 
blushed,as if overwhelmed 
with the enthusiastic attention of his fellow citizens. 
Later, Mr. Oglesby rose again with a mysterious speech 
upon his lips: 

"There is an old Democrat," said he, "waiting outside, 
who has something he wishes to present to the conven- 
tion." 

"Receive it," they cried. 

The doors of the wigwam opened and in marched old 
John Hanks with two fence rails on his shoulders, bear- 
ing the inscription, "Two rails, from a lot made by Abra- 
ham Lincoln and John Hanks, in the Sangamon bottom, 
in the year 1830." The audience was beside itself. Mr. 




Richard J. Oglesby, 
War Governor of Illinois. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



57 



Lincoln blushed and laughed. They insisted upon a 
speech, and he said: 

"Gentlemen: I suppose you want to know something 
about those things. Well, the truth is John Hanks and 
I did make rails in the Sangamon bottom. I don't know 




The Wigwam, at Chicago. The Building in which Lincoln was Nominated 
for the Presidency by the Republican Party, May 18, 1860. 



whether we made those rails or not. The fact is I don't 
think they are a credit to the makers. But I do know 
that I made rails then, and think I could make better 
ones than those now." 

That convention closed with a resolution declaring: 
"Abraham Lincoln is the first choice of the Republican 
party of Illinois for the presidency/' and instructing the 



58 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

delegates to the Chicago convention to use all honorable 
means to secure his nomination and to cast the vote of 
the state as a unit for him. 

Thus was the movement started that should make 
Abraham Lincoln, the flat-boatman, 'the rail splitter, the 
standard-bearer of the Republican party in the fateful 
election of i860. 

The convention met at Chicago on the 16th of May in 
a great wigwam at the corner of Lake and Market 
Streets. William H. Seward of New York was the rep- 
resentative man of the East for the highest office in the 
gift of the nation, at the hands of the Republican party. 
Favorite sons of other states received complimentary votes 
on the first ballot. 

On the third ballot Mr. Lincoln had distanced all 
competitors and was within i-V 2 votes of the nomina- 
tion. Those votes were quickly given and the nom- 
ination w r as made unanimous. When the dispatch an- 
nouncing his nomination was handed him, at Spring- 

1 

field, he started home w r ith it, saying: 

"Gentlemen, there is a little short woman at our house 
who is probably more interested in this dispatch than I 
am, and if you will excuse me I will take it up and let 
her see it." 

The formal letters of notification and acceptance were 
passed. The Democrats were divided, as Mr. Lincoln had 
foreseen. His Freeport question had rent them in twain. 
Douglas and Breckenridge were their standard bearers, 
and the result was not difficult to foresee. On the 6th 
of November, the nation recorded its verdict. Abraham 




William H. Seward. 
Born 1801. Died 1872. 



60 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Lincoln was President-elect of the United States. Be- 
tween November and March there was much to be done. 
His cabinet was to be chosen, numerous offices were to 
be filled, his private affairs were to be wound up. The 
magnanimity of his mind was soon made apparent in his 
willingness to appoint his opponents to the highest 
offices within his gift. 

He offered the Secretaryship of the Treasury to Mr. 
Guthrie of Kentucky; another secretaryship was ten- 
dered to Mr. Gilmer of North Carolina; Stephens of 
Georgia was also approached. He saw, as few party 
men could see, the injustice and impolicy of admin- 
istering the government in the interest of a party that 
had no existence in the southern states. Though 
he was a conqueror, he was a conciliator, and if grave 
trouble was to be safely avoided, he would leave no stone 
unturned to avoid it. 

Without jealousy or fear, he intrusted the foremost 
places in his cabinet to his late political rivals, utterly 
oblivious to the suggestion that they might outshine or 
supplant him. 

Seward, the accomplished, eloquent statesman from 
New York, he made his Secretary of State, Chase 
his Secretary of the Treasury, Bates his Attorney Gen- 
eral. 

Cameron and Smith he appointed in deference to 
the suggestions of his friends, for services rendered, 
as alleged, in securing his nomination. Hundreds of 
office seekers made a pilgrimage to Springfield and 
made life a burden to him. He listened to their 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 61 

plea, regaled them with an apposite story and sent them 
on their way. Many of his old-time friends hoped to reap 
the reward of their friendship in appointment to office, 
and felt hardly toward him that their cases were not al- 
ways favorably considered. But he would not have it 
said that he used his public position in the interest of his 
friends. Then too, old friends and old scenes must be 
visited that he might say good-bye, for his long absence, 
from the region where he had grown to manhood. He 
made a tender farewell visit to his old step-mother, who 
had been a mother indeed. He visited New Salem and 
shook hands with thousands of his old friends, whom he 
had known in all the phases of his career. 

The framing of his policy and the writing of his in- 
augural address were absorbing cares. As he looked out 
on the alarming situation in the South and the imbecility 
and knavery that was being manifested in Washington, 
his forced inactivity till March was like a consuming 
canker. Southern States were seceding and appropriat- 
ing national property. The arsenals of the North were 
being looted for the benefit of the South, by order of the 
Secretary of War. Frantic efforts were being made in 
Congress to concoct some scheme of compromise that 
would save the union, and Mr. Lincoln was implored to, 
speak some word, or offer some suggestion as to his poli- 
cy, that would help the situation. To such as sought to 
know his position, he referred them to his record. 

To the committee of thirty- three in the House he said, 
"Entertain no compromise in regard to the extension of 
slavery." To Mr. Washburnehe said on this point: 



62 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



"Hold firm, as with a chain of steel." 
On Dec. 17th, he wrote to Thurlow Weed that "no state 
can in any way, lawfully, get out of the union without 




President Lincoln and his Cabinet. 



the consent of the others," and, that "it is the duty of the 
president and other government functionaries to run the 
machine as it is." To Mr. Washburne he wrote, for the 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 63 

advice of General Scott, "Please present my respects to 
the General and tell him, confidentially, that I shall be 
obliged to him to be as well prepared as he can to either 
hold, or retake the forts, as the case may require, at and 
after the inauguration." The summary way in which Gen- 
eral Jackson had dealt with the milliners of 1830 and '32 
was a frequent study during these months of waiting: 

At length the time came for his departure to the scene 
of his labors. With his mind fully made up, his cabinet 
chosen, his inaugural written, he bade farewell to his old 
partner, as we have related. Judge Gillespie, an old 
friend, called to say good-bye and told him he believed 
it would do him good to get to Washington. 

"I know it will," Lincoln replied, "I only wish I could 
have got there to lock the door before the horse was stol- 
en. But when I get to the spot I can find the tracks." 

With tender farewell he addressed the citizens of Spring- 
field, commending them to the Divine care, and begging 
their prayers on his behalf. 

At different stages on the route he stated his position 
with a clearness that admitted no uncertainty, that he 
purposed to rule justly, respecting the rights of all under 
the Constitution, maintaining the rights and possessions 
of the nation in all its parts. 

Assassins lay in wait for him, but he avoided them 
and reached the Capital in safety more than a week be- 
fore the inauguration. On the 27th of February, when 
waited upon by the mayor and common council of Wash- 
ington, he assured them, and the South through them, 
that he had no disposition to treat them in any other way 



64 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



than as neighbors, and that he had no disposition to with- 
hold from them any constitutional rights. They should 
all have their rights under the Constitution, not grudg- 
ingly, but fully and fairly. 

No more fateful or solemn inauguration of a president 
ever took place than that of Abraham Lincoln on the 4th 

of March, 1861. As 
he stood before the 
Capitol, serene, brave, 
true to the noble in- 
stincts of his nature, 
and the promise of 
his life, resolutely set 
on upholding free- 
dom and the Consti- 
tution, there surged 
about him a swarm 
of traitors and con- 
spirators, whose pur- 
poses were but thin- 
ly concealed. Presi- 
dent Buchanan was 
there, whose irreso- 
luteness had permitted secession to get good headway. 
Chief-Justice Taney and his associates were there, whose 
perverse ingenuity had formulated the Dred Scott De- 
cision. Generals soon to be conspicuous in the ranks of 
the rebel army, surrounded him. Seward, the great rival 
whom he had distanced, stood near. Chase, Scott, Sum- 
ner and Wade, who should hold up his hands in the day of 




James Buchanan. Fifteenth President 
Born 1791. Died 1868. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 6^ 

battle were there, and Douglas was holding the president's 
hat, though the ambition of his life had been overthrown 
by the man who was now the "observed of all observers." 
He was solicitous for the safety and convenience of the 
new president and defiant to the enemies of the union. 

The great inaugural was but the fuller statement of the 
views to which he had given expression in the period 
since his election. It was conciliatory, but clear and firm. 
He said, "I have no purpose directly, or indirectly, to in- 
terfere with the institution of slavery in the states where 
it now exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, 
and I have no inclination to do so." "I hold that in 
contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution 
the union of the states is perpetual. I shall take care, 
as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, 
that the laws of the union be faithfully executed in all 
the states. In doing this there need be no blood-shed 
or violence and there shall be none unless it is forced 
upon the national authority." 

He pointed out the way of curing dissatisfaction with 
the form of government, by amending it, or by their rev- 
olutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. Then he 
counseled patience in the consideraton of sources of dis- 
satisfaction, declaring that intelligent patriotism and 
Christianity and a firm reliance on Him who has never 
yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to ad- 
just, in the best way, all our present difficulties. Then, 
as if clothed with the full dignity of his magisterial of- 
fice, he pronounced these solemn and beautiful sentences, 
"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and 



66 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

not in mine, are the momentous issues of civil war. The 
government will not assail you. You can have no con- 
flict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have 
no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, 
while I have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, 
and defend it. I am loath to close. We are not enemies 
but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion 
mav have strained, it will not break our bonds of affect- 
ion. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from 
every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart 
and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell 
the chorus of the union, when again touched, as surely 
they will be, by the better angels of our nature." But 
these gentle words were lost upon the men who had al- 
ready committed themselves to the disruption of the 
union and the founding of a Confederacy, of which the 
institution of slavery should be the chief corner stone. 

On the evening of the 4th of March, Mr. Lincoln en- 
tered the White House, that should be his home for the 
remainder of his days. There, was sumptuousness and 
elegance to which he was not accustomed, formality and 
etiquette, that in his quiet life he had not practiced, but 
to all he adjusted himself with that simple grace that 
marked the American citizen, born to the purple and des- 
tined to command. 

He found the government in confusion, seven states in 
secession and a rebel government already organized at 
Montgomery, Alabama. The Southern heart had been 
fired and her young men were in arms. 

He nominated his cabinet and set himself earnestly 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



67 



at work upon the tasks that were forced upon him. 
Though his counselors were able men, famed for leader- 
ship, they were only his advisers. He was their chief, 
President of the Nation and Commander-in-Chief of the 




The Bombardment of Ft. Sumter, April 12, 1861. 

army and navy of the United States. If any of them 
supposed that he would divide that responsibility or yield 
to their dictation they were soon, kindly but firmly, dis- 
abused. Some of the Southern leaders thought that 
there would be no war, that the North was divided and 
that the Northern people would not fight. There was 



68 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

some encouragement to this idea, but not in the calm, 
resolute purpose of the new President. 

On the 15th of April, the President issued his first call 
for seventy-five thousand volunteers to put clown the re- 
bellion. Ft. Sumter had been attacked and had fallen. 
One by one the rebel leaders had slunk away from the 
scene of their treason, Breckinridge among the last. The 
war was forced upon him. Patriotic devotion to the 
Union effaced all differences. Half a million of men 
responded to the President's call. Congress voted men 
and money for the prosecution of the war. The times 
were inauspicious. The best generals of the country were 
in the rebel service. Arms, ammunition, and accoutre- 
ments, had been seized, and foreign sympathies, and hos- 
tile diplomacy, raised grave problems for the new exec- 
utive; but he faltered not. Disasters came, incompetent 
commanders and inadequate preparations demonstrated 
that war would be discouraging and tedious. Still, he 
did not falter. He succeeded in holding Maryland, Ken- 
tucky and Missouri in the union, and in dividing Virgin- 
ia and holding West Virginia loyal. 

When Congress met in Dec, 1861, in his message on 
the slavery question, he said, "I have adhered to the act 
of Congress freeing persons held to service used for in- 
surrectionary purposes." In relation to the emancipa- 
tion and arming of the negroes he said, "The maintenance 
of the integrity of the union is the primary object of the 
contest. The union must be preserved and all indispen- 
sable means must be employed. We should not be in 
haste to determine that radical and extreme measures, 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



69 



which may reach the loyal as well as the disloyal, are 
indispensable." The possibility of injustice to the bor- 
der states led him to counsel patience. 

During this session of Congress, slavery was forbidden 
in the territories 
of the United 
States,and Mr. Lin- 
coln labored with 
the representatives 
of the border states 
to accept the idea 
of gradual com- 
pensated emanci- 
pation, which they 
declined. In his 
second message, he 
urged the propo- 
sition upon con- 
gress of gradual 
and compensated 
emancipation. I 
cannot forbear 
quoting some of 
his words. In concluding his appeal he said: 

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the 
stormy present. The occasion is piled high with diffi- 
culty. We must rise with the occasion. As our case is 
new, so w T e must think anew, and act anew. We must 
disenthral ourselves, and then we shall save our country. 
Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history! We of this 




Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War. 
Born 1814. Died 1869. 



70 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

congress and this administration, will be remembered in 
spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignifi- 
cance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial 
through which we pass will light us down in honor or 
dishonor to the last generation. We say we are for the 
Union. The world will not forg-et that we sav this. We 
know how to save the Union. The world knows we do 
know how to save it. We, even we, here hold the power 
and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave 
we assure freedom to the free, honorable alike in what 
we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or 
meanly lose the last best hope of earth. Other means 
may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, 
peaceful, generous, just— a way which if followed, the 
world will forever applaud and God must forever bless." 
His plan, so earnestly and eloquently presented, re- 
sulted in no action. The matter pressed upon his mind 
until, on his own responsibility, he issued his proclama- 
tion of warning, his own magisterial act, on Sept. 22, 
1862, advising the states in rebellion that if they did not 
return to loyalty by January, 1863, he would issue a 
proclamation emancipating their slaves. January came, 
and with it the most momentous document in the history 
of the country, wherein the names of the states in rebel- 
lion were cited; and then, by virtue of his power as Pres- 
ident of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of the 
Army and Navy, he ordered and declared that "all per- 
sons held as slaves within said designated states and parts 
of states, are and henceforward shall be, free," and that 
"the Executive Government of the United States, includ- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 71 

ing the military and naval authorities thereof, will recog- 
nize and maintain the freedom of said persons." 

Upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of jus- 
tice warranted by the constitution, upon military neces- 
sity, he invoked, "the considerate judgment of mankind 
and the gracious favor of Almighty God." 

It was the crowning act of his career. The moment 
of destiny had come and found him ready. The promise 
of his young manhood, made amid the slave scenes of 
New Orleans, "If I ever get a chance to hit Slavery I'll 
hit it hard," was fulfilled. Henceforth, he is Lincoln 
the Emancipator! 

Supplementary legislation gave full effect to the pur- 
pose of this great document, reaching to the slaves in bor- 
der states and in sections under the control of the Union. 
The tide of battle turned in favor of the Union, and ere 
the close of his term the purposes for which he had gone 
from Springfield to Washington were well-nigh accom- 
plished. Through it all, he was the masterful leader, 
bearing his own burden; resting his often breaking heart 
and burdened mind with the wit and humor that had al- 
ways been so restful to him; bearing with patience the 
mistakes and jealousies and malice of men; never falter- 
ing in his steady course; wisely avoiding entanglement 
with foreign nations till our crisis should be passed; prac- 
ticing humanity and kindness that sterner men thought 
subversive of discipline; approachable to all who had an 
errand, or who needed to invoke the great, strong, kind- 
hearted President. He came down to the close of his 
first term of office to be triumphantly re-elected, and to 



72 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



inaugurate the work of reconstruction, for be who saved 
the Union was, in the judgment of the people, the one 
who might most effectually restore it to its old form, free 

from the curse 
of slavery, to 
the condition of 
a great homo- 
geneous c o m- 
mon-wealth, the 
home of happi- 
ness and thrift 
and freedom. 
He began his 
work with his 
old kind, con- 
ciliatory, yet 
self-confident, 
tact, and just as 
he had begun, 
the bullet of an 
assassin remov- 
ed him from la- 
bor to reward. 
That assassina- 
tion conferred on him the crown of martyrdom. If he 
had survived, he might have been Moses and Joshua in 
one. It was enough that he was Moses. 

Let us close with the words of Owen Lovejoy, spoken 
when emancipation resolutions were under consideration 
and Mr. Crittenden had said, u I have a niche for Abraham 




Ford's Theatre, Washington, where Lincoln was shot 
by John Wilkes Booth, April 14, 1865. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 73 

Lincoln." Mr. Lovejoy exclaimed, "I, too, have a niche 
for Abraham Lincoln, but it is in Freedom's holy fame and 
not in the blood besmeared temple of human bondage: not 
surrounded by slaves, fetters and chains, but with the 
symbols of freedom; not dark with bondage but radiant 
with the light of liberty. In that niche he shall stand 
proudly, nobly, gloriously, with shattered fetters and 
broken chains and slave whips at his feet. 

( 'If Abraham Lincoln pursues the path evidently point- 
ed out for him in the Providence of God, as I believe 
he will, then he will occupy the proud position I have 
indicated. That is a fame worth living for, aye, more, 
that is a fame worth dying for, though that death led 
through the blood of Gethsemane and the agony of the 
accursed tree. That is a fame which has glory, honor 
and immortality and eternal life. 

"Let Abraham Lincoln make himself, as I trust he 
will, the Emancipator, the Liberator, as he has the 
opportunity of doing, and his name shall be not only en- 
rolled in this earthly temple, but it will be traced on the 
living stones of the temple which rears its head amid the 
thrones and hierarchies of heaven, whose top stone is to 
be brought in with shouting of 'Grace unto it.'" 

Mr. Lovejoy's confidence was not in vain. 



74 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 




r^4J .- „ , ... 

ANECDOTES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF LINCOLN. . 

LINCOLN'S ADDRESS AT .SPRINGFIELD BEFORE CxOING 
TO HIS INAUGURATION. 

"Then came the central incident of the morning. Once 
more the bell gave notice of starting; but as the conduc- 
tor paused with his hands lifted to the bell-rope, Mr. Lin- 
coln appeared on the platform of the car, and raised his 
hand to command attention. The bystanders bared their 
heads to the falling snow-flakes, and standing thus his 
neighbors heard his voice for the last time, in the city of 
his home, in a farewell address so chaste and pathetic 
that it reads as if he already felt the tragic shadow of 
forecasting fate: 

" 'My Friends: No one not in my situation can ap- 
preciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this 
place and the kindness of these people I owe everything. 
Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed 
from a young to an old man. Here my children have 
been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing 
when, or whether I may ever return, with a task before 
me greater than that which rested upon Washington. 
Without the assistance of that Divine Being who ever at- 
tended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



75 



cannot fail. Trusting in Him, who can go with me, and 
remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us con- 
fidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care com- 
mending you, as I 
hope in your pray- n 
ers you will com- 
mend me, I bid 
you an affection- 
ate farewell.' '' — 
Century Alaga- 
zme. 

MONEY AND SELF- 
ISHNESS. 

The following 
story was told by 
the Hon. Schuyler 
Colfax, who was 
present at the in- 
terview: 

"In 1862, the 
people of New 
York City were 
greatly troubled, 

(some of them) for fear of a bombardment of the 
city by the confederate navy. Public meetings were 
held to discuss the situation, and the matter at last re- 
sulted in the appointment of a delegation of fifty men 
who represented, in their own right, two hundred millions 
of money. 




Robert T. Lincoln. Son of Abraham Lincoln, 
and Ex-Secretary of War. 



76 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

"These millionaires were to call on the President and 
induce him to send a gunboat or a warship to protect the 
city. 

"When they called they were impressively introduced, 
and the fact that they owned two hundred millions of 
money was made especially prominent. 

"The chairman of the delegation made a very earnest 
appeal for protection, and he also emphasized the fact that 
they owned two hundred million dollars worth of prop- 
erty. 

"In his reply Lincoln stated that he would be glad to 
afford them the necessary protection, but the fact was 
that under the circumstances it was impossible for him to 
furnish them even a gunboat, all the boats being in use 
and the credit of the government at low ebb. 'But,' 
said he, 'if I were worth half as much as you gentlemen 
are, and were as badly frightened as you are, I would 
build a gunboat and give it to the government for the 
protection of my own city.' 

" 'The wise men of Gotham' went away, realizing that 
even the money in their pockets should be one of the fac- 
tors of the war." 

LINCOLN AND THE OFFICE SEEKERS. 

A delegation once waited upon Lincoln to ask for the 
appointment of a certain party as Commissioner to the 
Sandwich Islands. 

They argued their case earnestly, and at last made a 
strong point of the fact that the applicant was in poor 
health, and a residence in that climate would be of great 
benefit to him. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



77 



The President, however, closed the interview with the 
following remark: 

"Gentlemen, I am sorry to say that there are eight 
other applicants for that place, and they are all sicker 
than your man is" 




The Battle of Bull Run, the First Great Battle of the Civil War, 1861. 
LOYALTY TO FRIENDS. 

The mildness of the man, and the tenderness of feeling 
hidden under a rugged exterior, were well known char- 
acteristics of the martyred President. But there were 
times when righteous indignation blazed in his eyes, 
and his voice was raised in defense of the cause which 
he had espoused. 

The pressure of office seekers often annoyed him al- 
most beyond endurance. During the first few months of 
the administration, the frantic horde pursued him day 



78 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

and night. It jarred upon his patriotism to see men so 
eager for position and pelf when the country was just 
entering upon the awful fight for life, and not only this, 
but unpardonable selfishness was often revealed. 

A delegation of California Republicans called on him 
at one time with a list of proposals covering not only the 
principal offices of that state, but indeed of the whole 
Pacific coast. 

Their program was opposed in part by Senator Baker, 
who naturally claimed the right to be consulted respect- 
ing the patronage of his section of the Union. 

After considerable discussion some of the Californians, 
in their eagerness to carry their point, went so far as to 
assail the public and private character of Senator Baker, 
who was an honored friend of Lincoln's. 

The anger of the President was instantly aroused, and 
he exhibited such vehemence and intensity that the party 
of politicians fairly quailed before him. His wrath was 
terrifying when he put his foot down, and declared that 
Senator Baker was his friend, and that no man could as- 
sail him with impunity — if they hoped to gain anything 
by such nefarious conduct they were greatly mistaken. 

The result was that the charges against Senator Baker 
were retracted and ample apologies made, and such a dis- 
position was made of the offices on the coast as satisfied 
Mr. Baker, while the Californians were allowed to have 
their own way to a great extent in their own state. 

DANCE AT MIDNIGHT — HOW LINCOLN RECEIVED THE 
NEWS FROM GETTYSBURG. 

"One evening at a crowded party given by Senator 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



79 



Dixon, I was forced by the press into a corner and on 
looking around, found my next neighbor was Secretary 
Stanton. By-and-by Dixon came along and spying us 
said: 'Stanton, tell him the scene between old Abe 




The Battle of Gettysburg, from the Painting by Wenderoth. 



Stan- 



and you the night of the battle of Gettysburg. ' 
ton then related the following: 

"Mr. Lincoln had been excessively solicitous about the 
result of that battle. It was known that Lee had crossed 
into Pennsylvania, threatening Washington, and that a 
battle had commenced near Gettysburg, upon which, in 
all probability, the fate of Washington and the issue of 
the war depended. The telegraphic wires ran into the 
War Department and dispatches had been received of the 



80 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

first day's fight, which showed how desperate was the 
attack, the stubbornness of the defense, and that the re 
suit was indecisive. All that day and the next Mr. Lin- 
coln was in an agony of anxiety, running over, as was 
his wont, to the War Office to ascertain for himself the 
latest news instead of waiting for the reports to be sent 
him by his subordinates. Then came a long interval 
when nothing was heard from Meade, and the President . 
was wrought up to an intense pitch of excitement. 

"Night came on, and Stanton, seeing the President worn 
out with care and anxiety, persuaded him to return to 
the White House, promising if anything came over the 
wires during the night to give him immediate informa- 
tion. At last, toward midnight, came the electric flash 
of that great victory which saved the Union. 

"Stanton seized the dispatch and ran as fast as he could 
to the Executive Mansion, up the stairs, and knocked at 
the room where the President was catching a fitful slum- 
ber. 

"'Who is there?' he heard in the voice of Mr. Lin- 
coln. 

"'Stanton.' 

"The door was opened, and Mr. Lincoln appeared with 
a light in his hand, peering through the crack of the 
door. Before Stanton, who was out of breath, could say 
a word the President, who had caught with unerring in- 
stinct the expression of his face, gave a shout of exulta- 
tion, grabbed him with both arms around the waist, and 
danced him around the chamber until they were botli 
exhausted. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 81 

"They then sat down upon a trunk, and the President, 
who was still in his nightdress, read over and over again 
the telegram, and then discussed with him the probabili- 
ties of the future and the results of the victory, until the 
day dawned. 

"Such a scene at midnight between two of the greatest 
Americans whom this generation had produced, to whom 
all wise Providence had committed in largest measure 
the fate of Republican liberty in this Western world, may 
not afford a subject for the loftiest conceptions of the 
poet or the painter, but more than any other incident 
within my knowledge it shows the human nature of 
these two great men, and brings them home to the hearts 
and the hearthstones of the plain people of whom Mr. 
Lincoln was, on whom he depended, and whom he loved. 

"It shows him brooding all through those three awful 
days, with an anxiety akin to agony which no one could 
share — worn and weary with the long and doubtful con- 
flict between hope and fear — treading the wine-press for 
his people alone. And at last when the lightning flash 
had lifted the dark cloud, dancing like a schoolboy in the 
ecstasy of delight and exhibiting' a touch of that human 
nature which makes all the world akin. 

"As I look back over the intervening years to the great 
men and great events of those historic days, his figure 
rises before my memory the grandest and most majestic 
of them all. There were giants in those days, but he 
towered above them like Popocatepetl or Chimborazo. 
He was great in character, in intellect, in wisdom, in 
tact, in council, in speech, in heart, in person — in every- 






82 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

thing." — Hon. A. H. Brandcgc, in N. Y. Tribune. 

LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS. 

In .discussion Lincoln often combined wit and humor 
in such a way that it made his opponent ridiculous. Mr. 
Douglas was often the victim of these little sallies during 
the great debates before the people of Illinois in the year 

1858. 

In relation to the abolition of slavery, Douglas con- 
stantly argued or assumed that if freedom were given to 
the slave, it would be followed with intermarriage be- 
tween the blacks and whites. He also charged that the 
Republican party was anxious to repeal the laws of Ill- 
inois which prohibited such marriages. At last Lincoln 
retorted about as follows: 

"I solemnly protest against that counterfeit logic, which 
presumes that because I do not want a black woman for a 
slave, that I do necessarily want her for a wife — I have 
no fears of marrying a negro — it requires no law to pre- 
vent me from doing it, but if Judge Douglas needs a law 
of that sort I will do my utmost to retain the enactment 
which forbids the marrying of white people with ne- 



groes." 



PARDONS. 

Many a distressed father or mother found help in ap- 
pealing to Lincoln. He was the terror of his generals, 
who feared that by excessive use of the pardoning power 
he would destroy the discipline of the army, and Secretary 
Seward was more than indignant on many occasions 
when he felt that the President trespassed to an unwar- 
rantable extent upon his own domain. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



83 



Attorney General Bates, who was a Virginian, once ap- 
proached Lincoln with a special plea in behalf of a yonng 
Virginian, who had run away .from a Union father, and 
enlisted in the rebel ranks. He had been captured, and 
was then held as a prisoner 
of war, and was in very poor 
health. 

The President pondered 
on the matter for a moment, 
and then replied: "Bates, I 
have almost a parallel case 
in which the son of an old 
friend of mine ran away from 
his home in Illinois and en- 
tered the rebel army. 

"The young fool has been 
captured, and his poor old 
father has appealed to me 
to send him home, promising of course, to keep him 
there. I have not seen my way clear to do it, but if you 
and I unite our influence with this administration, I be- 
lieve we can manage to make two loyal 'fathers happy." 
And he did. 

Schuyler Colfax once told a pathetic story of going to 
Lincoln for a pardon for the son of a former constituent. 

He said Lincoln listened to the story with his usual 
patience, although he was even then tired out with in- 
cessant calls and demands upon his time, and then 
said: "Some of my generals complain that I impair dis- 
cipline by my frequent pardons and reprieves, but after 




Jefferson Davis, President of the 

Southern Confederacy. 

Born 1808. Died 1889. 



84 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

a hard day's work it rests me, if I can find some excuse 
for saving a poor fellow's life, and I shall go to bed to- 
night thinking happily of the joy that the signing of my 
name will give to that poor fellow and his family." 

And with the tender smile which so often illumined 
those care-worn features, he signed his name and saved 
that life. 

NO PARDON FOR SLAVE STEALERS. 

The great clemency of the Chief Executive was so well 
understood that many demands were made upon him for 
unworthy objects. The Hon. John B. Alley says that 
while he was in congress a petition was sent him, num- 
erously signed, for the pardon of a man who had been 
convicted of illegal slave trading as the commander of a 
vessel engaged in kidnapping the natives of Africa, and 
bringing them to a life of bondage in the United States. 

The President courteously read the letter and petition, 
then drawing his lank figure up to its full height, he 
said: "I believe I am kindly enough to pardon almost 
any criminal, but the man who for paltry gain can rob 
Africa of her children to sell them into bondage will get 
no pardon from me. He may lie in jail forever so far as 
I am concerned." Lincoln evidently thought that men 
of this stamp could serve their country better while in 
jail, than they cc uld if they had their freedom. 

A father's experience. 
A Congressman went up to the White House one 
morning on business, and saw in the anteroom, always 
crowded with people in those days, an old man, crouched 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 05 

all alone in a corner, crying as if his heart would break. 
As such a sight was by no means uncommon, the Con- 
gressman passed into the President's room, transacted 
his business, and went away. 

The next morning he was obliged again to go to the 
White House, and he saw the same old man crying, as 
before, in the corner. He stopped, and said to him, 
"What's the matter with you old man?" 

The old man told him the story of his son ; that he 
was a soldier in the Army of the James — General But- 
ler's army — that he had been convicted by a court-mar- 
tial of an outrageous crime and sentenced to be shot 
next week ; and that his congressman was so convinced 
of the convicted man's guilt that he would not intervene. 

"Well," said Mr. Alley, "I will take you into the Ex- 
ecutive Chamber after I have finished my business, and 
you can tell Mr. Lincoln all about it." 

On being introduced into Mr. Lincoln's presence, he 
was accosted with, "Well, my old friend, what can I do 
for you to-day?" The old man then repeated to Mr. 
Lincoln what he had already told the Congressman in 
the anteroom. 

A cloud of sorrow came over the President's face as he 
replied, "I am sorry to say I can do nothing for you. 
Listen to this telegram received from General Butler 
yesterday: 'President Lincoln, I pray you not to interfere 
with the courts-martial of the army. You will destroy 
all discipline among our soldiers. — B. F. Butler.' " 

Every word of this dispatch seemed like the death 
knell of despair to the old man's newly awakened hopes. 



86 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Mr. Lincoln watched his grief for a minute, and then 
exclaimed, "By jingo, Butler or no Butler, here goes!" — 
writing a few words and handing them to the old man. 
The confidence created by Mr. Lincoln's words broke 
down when he read — "Job Smith is not to be shot until 
further orders from me. — Abraham Lincoln." 

"Why," said the old man, "I thought it was to be a 
pardon; but you say, 'not to be shot till further orders,' 
and you may order him to be shot next week." Mr. 
Lincoln smiled at the old man's fears, and replied, "Well, 
my old friend, I see you are not very well acquainted 
with me. If your son never looks on death till further 
orders come from me to shoot him, he will live to be a 
ereat deal older than Methuselah." 

LINCOLN AND STEVENS. 

Thaddeus Stevens, who so often criticised Mr. Lincoln 
very severely for not being aggressive and destructive 
enough, used to tell, with great gusto, this story of his 
own personal experience. 

Mr. Stevens had gone with an old lady from Lancaster 
County, Pennsylvania (his district), to the White House, 
to ask the pardon of her son, condemned to die for sleep- 
ing on his post. The President suddenly turned upon 
his cynical Pennsylvania friend, whom he knew had so 
often assailed him for excessive lenity, and said, "Now, 
Thad, what would you do in this case if you happened to 
be President?" 

Mr. Stevens knew how many hundreds of his constit- 
uents were waiting breathlessly to hear the result of that 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 87 

old woman's pilgrimage to Washington. Of course, 
congressmen who desired to be re-elected liked to carry 
out the desires of their constituents. Stevens did not 
relish the President's home-thrust, but replied that, as he 
knew of the extenuating circumstances, he would cer- 
tainly pardon him. 

''Well, then," said Mr. Lincoln, after a moment's 
writing in silence, "here, madam, is your son's pardon." 
Her gratitude filled her heart to overflowing, and it 
seemed to her as though her son had been snatched from 
the gateway of the grave. 

She could only thank the President with her tears as 
she passed out, but when she and Mr. Stevens had 
reached the outer door of the White House she burst out, 
excitedly with the words, "I knew it was a lie! I knew 
it was a lie!" "What do you mean? ' asked her aston- 
ished companion. "Why, when I left my country home 
in old Lancaster yesterday, the neighbors told me that I 
would find that Mr. Lincoln was an ugly man, when 
he is really the handsomest man I ever saw in my life. " 
And certainly, when sympathy and mercy lightened up 
those rugged features, many a wife and mother pleading 
for his intervention had reason to think him handsome, 
indeed. 

FREDERICK DOUGLASS ON THE INAUGURATION OF 

LINCOLN. 

"I was present at the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, the 
4th of March, 1865. I felt then that there was murder 
in the air, and I kept close to his carriage on the way to 



88 



ABRAHAM LINXOLN. 



the Capitol, for I felt that I might see him fall that day. 
It was a vague presentiment. 

"At that time the Confederate cause was on its last 
legs, as it were, and there was deep feeling. I could feel 

it in the atmosphere here. I 
got in front of the east portico 
of the Capitol, listened to his 
inaugural address, and wit- 
nessed his being sworn in by 
Chief Justice Chase. 

"When he came on to the 
steps he was accompanied by 
Vice-President Johnson. In 
looking out in the crowd he 
saw me standing near by, and 
I could see he was pointing me 
Frederick Douglass. out to Andrew Johnson. Mr. 

Johnson, without knowing perhaps that I saw the move- 
ment, looked quite annoyed that his attention should be 
called in that direction. So I got a peep into his soul. 
As soon as he saw me looking at him, suddenly he as- 
sumed rather an amicable expression of countenance. I 
felt that, whatever else the man might be, he was no 
friend to my people. 

"I heard Mr. Lincoln deliver this wonderful address. It 
was very short; but he answered all the objections raised 
to his prolonging the war in one sentence — it was a re- 
markable sentence. 

"'Fondly do we hope, profoundly do we pray, that this 
mighty scourge of war shall soon pass away, yet if God 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 89 

wills it to continue until all the wealth piled up by two 
hundred years of bondage shall have been wasted, and 
each drop of blood drawn by the lash shall have been 
paid for, by one drawn by the sword, we must still say, 
as was said three thousand years ago, the judgments of 
the Lord are true and righteous altogether. ' 

"For the first time in my life, and I suppose the first 
time in any colored man's life, I attended the reception 
of President Lincoln on the evening of the inauguration. 
As I approached the door I was seized by two policemen 
and forbidden to enter. I said to them that they were 
mistaken entirely in what they were doing, that if Mr. 
Lincoln knew that I was at the door he would order my 
admission, and I bolted in by them. On the inside I 
was taken in charge of two other policemen, to be con- 
ducted as I supposed to the President, but instead of 
that they were conducting me out of the window on a 
plank. 

"Oh," said I, "this will not do, gentlemen," and as a 
gentleman was passing in I said to him, "Just say to Mr. 
Lincoln that Fred. Douglass is at the door." 

"He rushed in to President Lincoln, and in about 
half a minute I was invited into the Bast Room of 
the White House. A perfect sea of beauty and ele- 
gance, too, it was. The ladies were in very fine attire, 
and Mrs. Lincoln was standing there. I could not have 
been more than ten feet from him when Mr. Lincoln 
saw me; his countenance lighted up, and he said in a 
voice which was heard all around: 'Here comes my 
friend Douglass.' As I approached him he reached out 



9 o ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

his hand, gave a cordial shake, and said: 'Douglass, I 
saw you in the crowd to-day listening to my inaugural 
address. There is no man's opinion that I value more 
than yours: what do you think of it?' I said: "Mr. 

guacl (gjiaita JWmirs o! IJij ^toitcil JFtetw. 







The Famous Last Dispatch of Lincoln to Grant with appended statement by 
Grant, certifying to its genuineness. 

Lincoln, I cannot stop here to talk with you, as there 
are thousands waiting to shake you by the hand;" but he 
said again again: 'What did you think of it?' I said: 
"Mr. Lincoln, it was a sacred effort," and then I walked 
off. 'I am glad you liked it,' he said. That was the 
last time I saw him to speak with him." 

LINCOLN AND REPORTERS. 

Joseph Medill, the veteran editor of the Chicago Trib- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 9* 

une, who was one of the corps of reporters, who followed 
Lincoln in the great debates with Douglas, tells the fol- 
lowing story: 

u You will remember that after Lincoln had been nom- 
inated he was asked to speak at Cooper Union, in New 
York. The eastern people knew nothing about him and 
they desired to see and hear him. Lincoln prepared a 
speech and gave copies to quite a number of us, request- 
ing that we study it carefully and make such corrections 
and suggestions as we saw fit. Well, I took my copy 
and went over it very carefully, and finally made about 
forty changes. The others to whom the address had 
been submitted were equally careful, and they made sev- 
eral amendments. When the speech was finally deliv- 
ered it was exactly word for word with the original copy 
which Lincoln gave us. Not a change suggested had 
been adopted. I never knew whether Lincoln intended 
to play a joke on us, or whether he really believed that 
the alterations were not effective. I never mentioned 
the matter to him, and he said nothing more to me. To 
tell the truth, I was not exactly proud of the part I 
played in the matter." 

LINCOLN'S BRAVERY. 

The following story is told by Gen. Butler: 
"Lincoln visited my department twice while I was in 
command. He was personally a very brave man, and 
gave me the worst fright of my life. He came to my 
head-quarters and said: 'General, I should like to ride 
along your lines and see them, and see the boys and how 




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ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



93 



they are situated in camp/ I said, "Very well, we will 
go after breakfast." 

"I happened to have a very tall, easy -riding, pacing 
horse, and as the 
President was ra- 
ther long legged, 
I tendered him the 
use of him, while 
I rode beside him 
on a pony. He 
was dressed, as was 
his custom, in a. 
black suit, a swal- 
low-tail coat, and 
tall silk hat. As 
there rode on the 
other side of him 
at first, Mr. Fox, 
the Secretary of 
the Navy, who was 
not more than five feet six inches in height, he stood out 
as a central figure of the group. Of course the staff offi- 
cers and orderly were behind. 

"When we got to the line of intrenchment, from which 
the line of rebel pickets was not more than three hundred 
yards, he towered high above the works, and as we came 
to the several encampments the boys all turned out and 
cheered him lustily. Of course the enemy's attention 
was wholly directed to this performance, and with the 
glass it could be plainly seen that the eyes of their ofi> 




Gen. Geo. B. McClellan, Commander of the Army 

of the Potomac. 

Born 1826. Died 1865. 



94 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

cers were fastened upon Lincoln; and a personage riding 
down the lines cheered by the soldiers was a very unusual 
thing, so that the enemy must have known that he was 
there. 

"Both Mr. Fox and myself said to him, "Let us not 
ride on the side next to the enemy, Mr. President. 
You are in fair rifle-shot of them, and they may open 
fire; and they must know you, being the only person not 
in uniform, and the cheering of the troops directs their 
attention to you. ' ' 

"'Oh, no,' he said laughing, 'the commander-in-chief 
of the army must not show any cowardice in the presence 
of his soldiers, whatever he may feel.' 

"And he insisted upon riding the whole six miles, which 
was about the length of my intrenchments, in that po- 
sition, amusing himself at intervals, when there was 
nothing more attractive, in a sort of competitive exam- 
ination of the commanding-general in the science of en- 
gineering. This greatly amused my engineer-in-chief, 
General Weitzel, who rode on my left, and who was 
kindly disposed to prompt me while the examination was 
going on. This attracted the attention of Mr. Lincoln, 
who said, 'Hold on, Weitzel, I can't beat you, but I 
think I can beat Butler.' 

"I give this incident to show his utter unconcern under 
circumstances of very great peril, which kept the rest of 
us in a continued and quite painful anxiety. When we 
reached the left of the line we turned off toward the hos- 
pitals, which were quite extensive and kept in most ad- 
mirable order by my medical director, Surgeon McCor- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 95 

mack. The President passed through all the wards, 
stopping and speaking very kindly to some of the poor 
fellows as they lay on their cots, and occasionally admin- 
istering a few words of commendation to the ward mas- 
ter. Sometimes when reaching a patient who showed 
much suffering the President's eyes would glisten with 
tears. The effect of his presence upon these sick men 
was wonderful, and his visit did great good, for there 
was no medicine which was equal to the cheerfulness 
which his visit so largely inspired." 

ERECTION OF THE LINCOLN MONUMENT AT SPRINGFIELD. 

The movement for the erection of a national Lincoln 
monument was begun immediately after the assassination 
of President Lincoln, but it was not until Oct. 15, 1874, 
that the Springfield memorial w r as dedicated, that city 
being chosen because it was Lincoln's home when he 
was elected to the Presidency. The monument stands 
in the middle of six acres of high ground in Oak Ridge 
cemetery. It is of massive proportions, of bronze and 
granite, and was designed by Larkin G. Mead, Jr., an 
American artist. Thirty-one artists of national repute 
competed for the design, among them being Leonard 
Volk 7 Harriet Hosmer, and Vinnie Ream. Some of the 
designs submitted would have cost $5,000,000, but all 
were adjudged as being of artistic merit, and it was only 
after considerable difficulty in making a choice that the 
design submitted by Larkin G. Mead of Brattleboro, Vt., 
was accepted. Whatever may be said in criticism, it 
cannot be denied that the Lincoln monument is an im- 



9 6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

posing structure. It consists of a central granite shaft, 
or obelisk, rising from a massive, square base to a height 
of ninety-eight feet. Allegorical figures in bronze crown 
the four corners of the pedestal. A bronze statue of Lin- 
coln standing in relief against the shining granite forms 
the central figure of the groups of statuary. The monu- 
ment is located on probably the highest ground in 
Springfield, overlooking the capital and wide stretches 
of Illinois prairie. The statue of Lincoln had been com- 
mended as one of the most natural and lifelike represen- 
tations of the martyred President. He is represented in 
the attitude of making a public address, grasping the 
emancipation proclamation in one hand. He stoops a 
little, he is angular, his cheeks are thin, his forehead 
deeply wrinkled. Old Illinoisans who had known Lin- 
coln from his boyhood pronounced it an excellent like- 
ness. The front of the pedestal on which the statue 
rests, bears the coat of arms of the United States in 
bronze. The American eagle on the shield is represent- 
ed as having broken the chain of slavery, some of the 
links being grasped in his talons, and the rest held aloft 
in his beak. An olive branch, spurned, is thrust aside at 
his feet. 

Memorial hall, in the base of the monument, is filled 
with various Lincoln relics and souvenirs. One of the 
most interesting of these is a stone from the wall of Ser- 
vius Tullius, presented to President Lincoln by citizens 
of Rome in 1865. ^ ^ s a l ar g e > irregular slab of sand- 
stone, on wdiich is carved the following inscription in 
Latin: 







I he Lincoln Monument at Springfield, 111. 



98 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

"To Abraham Lincoln, President for the second time 
of the American republic, citizens of Rome present this 
stone from the walls of Servius Tullius, by which the 
memory of each of those brave asserters of liberty may 
be associated. Anno, 1865." 

After Lincoln's death this stone was found in the base- 
ment of the capital at Washington. It is supposed that 
the President, not caring to have a furore raised over the 
incident, had ordered the stone stored away without say- 
ing anything about receiving it. The body of Lincoln 
was removed to the crypt in the monument from a tem- 
porary tomb in the public vault Oct. 9, 1874. The mar- 
ble sarcophagus bears the inscription: "With malice 
toward none, with charity for all. — Lincoln." The 
bodies of Mrs. Lincoln and the three sons, William, Ed- 
ward, and Thomas (Thad), have also been placed in the 
monument. Two crypts are left for the two remaining 
members of the family. 

The national Lincoln monument was built by popular 
subscription. Ex-Governor Richard J. Oglesby was the 
president of the association which had the matter in 
charge. Contributions toward the monument fund came 
from every city and state in the Union and from every 
country ill the world. 

LINCOLN'S SADNESS. 

The Honorable Schuyler Colfax, in his funeral oration 
at Chicago, said of him: — 

"He bore the nation's perils, and trials, and sorrows, 
ever on his mind. You know him, in a large degree, by 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 99 

the illustrative stories of which his memory and his 
tongue were so prolific, using them to point a moral, or 
to soften discontent at his decisions. But this was the 
mere badinage which relieved him for the moment from 
the heavy weight of public duties and responsibilities un- 
der which he often wearied. Those whom he admitted 
to his confidence, and with whom he conversed of his 
feelings, knew that his inner life was checkered with the 
deepest anxiety and most discomforting solicitude. Elat- 
ed by victories for the cause which was ever in his 
thoughts, reverses to our arms cast a pall of depression 
over him. One morning, over two years ago, calling 
upon him on business, I found him looking more than 
usually pale and careworn, and inquired the reason. He 
replied, with the bad news he had received at a late hour 
the previous night, which had not yet been communi- 
cated to the press— he had not closed his eyes or break- 
fasted; and with an expression I shall never forget, he 
exclaimed, 'How willingly would I exchange places to- 
day with the soldier who sleeps on the ground in the 
Army of the Potomac!' " 

HIS RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 

There is a very natural and proper desire, at this time, 
to know something of the religious experience of the late 
President. Two or three stories have been published in 
this connection, which 1 have never yet been able to trace 
to a reliable source, and I feel impelled to say here, that 
I believe the facts in the case — if there were such— have 
been added to, or unwarrantably embellished. Of all 

FC. 



ioo ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

men in the world, Mr. Lincoln was the most unaffected 
and truthful. He rarely or never used language loosely 
or carelessly, or for the sake of compliment. He was the 
most utterly indifferent to, and unconscious of, the effect 
he was producing, either upon official representatives, or 
the common people, of any man ever in public position. 

Aside from emotional expression, I believe no man 
had a more abiding sense of his dependence upon God, 
or faith in the Divine government, and in the power and 
ultimate triumph of Truth and Right in the world. In the 
language of an eminent clergyman of this city, who lately 
delivered an eloquent discourse upon the life and charac- 
ter of the departed President, "It is not necessary to ap- 
peal to apocryphal stories, in circulation in the newspa- 
pers — which illustrate as much the assurance of his visi- 
tors as the simplicity of his faith —for proof of Mr. Lin- 
coln's Christian character." If his daily life and various 
public addresses and writings do not show this, surely 
nothing can demonstrate it. 

But while inclined, as I have said, to doubt the truth 
of some of the statements published on this subject, I 
feel at liberty to relate an incident, which bears upon its 
face unmistakable evidence of truthfulness. A lady in- 
terested in the work of the Christian Commission had 
occasion, in the prosecution of her duties, to have several 
interviews with the President of a business nature. He 
was much impressed with the devotion and earnestness 
of purpose she manifested, and on one occasion, after she 
had discharged the object of her visit, he said to her: 
"Mrs. , I have formed a very high opinion of your 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



IOI 



Christian character, and now, as we are alone, I have a 
mind to ask yon to give me, in brief, your idea of what 
constitutes a true religious experience. " The lady re- 




The Old. State House, Springfield. Completed in 1840, 

Afterwards used as the Sangamon County Court House. The Capitol was located 

at Springfield through the efforts of "The Long Nine." so-called because 

the combined height of these men was 54 feet. Lincoln 

was a member of this delegation. 

plied at some length, stating that, in her judgment, it 
consisted of a conviction of one's own sinfulness and 
weakness, and personal need of the Saviour for strength 
and support; that views of mere doctrine might and 
would differ, but when one was really brought to feel 



102 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

his need of Divine help, and to seek the aid of the Holy 
Spirit for strength and guidance, it was satisfactory evi- 
dence of his having been born again. This was the sub- 
stance of her reply. When she had concluded, Mr. Lin- 
coln was very thoughtful for a few moments. He at 
length said, very earnestly, "If what yon have told me 
is really a correct view of this great subject, I think I 
can say w T ith sincerity, that I hope I am a Christian. I 
had lived," he continued, "until my boy Willie died, 
without realizing fully these things. That blow over- 
whelmed me. It showed me my weakness as I had never 
felt it before, and if I can take what you have stated as 
a test, I think I can safely say that I know something of 
that change of which you speak; and I will further add, 
that it has been my intention for some time, at a suita- 
ble opportunity, to make a public religious profession!" 
— Frank B. Carpenter. 

LEE'S SURRENDER. 
"On the clay of the receipt of the capitulation of Lee, 
as we learn from a friend intimate with the late President 
Lincoln, the cabinet meeting was held an hour earlier 
than usual. Neither the President nor any member was 
able, for a time, to give utterance to his feelings. At the 
suggestion of Mr. Lincoln all dropped on their knees, 
and offered, in silence and in tears, their humble and 
heartfelt acknowledgments to the Almighty for the tri- 
umph He had granted to the National cause." — u T/ie 
Western Christian Advocate." 

LINCOLN AND HIS ADVISERS. 

At the White House one day some gentlemen were 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 103 

present from the West, excited and troubled about the 
commissions or ommissions of the Administration. The 
President heard them patiently, and then replied: — "Gen- 
tlemen, suppose all the property you were worth was in 
gold, and you had put it in the hands of Blondin to carry 
across the Niagara River on a rope, would you shake the 
cable, or keep shouting out to him — 'Blondin, stand up 
a little straighter— Blondin, stoop a little more— go a lit- 
tle faster— lean a little more to the north — lean a little 
more to the south? No, you would hold your breath as 
well as your tongue, and keep your hands off until he 
was safe over. The government officials are carrying an 
immense weight. Untold tre'asures are in their hands. 
They are doing the very best they can. Don't badger 
them. Keep silence, and we'll get you safe across." 

HIS FIRST DOLLAR. 

On one occasion, in the Executive chamber, there were 
present a number of gentlemen, among them M r. Sew- 
ard. 

A point in the conversation suggesting the thought, 
Mr. Lincoln said: "Seward, you never heard, did you, 
how I earned my first dollar?" "No," said Mr. Seward. 
"Well," replied he, "I was about eighteen years of age. 
I belonged, you know, to what they call down South, the 
'scrubs;' people who do not own slaves are nobody there. 
But we had succeeded in raising chiefly by my labor, suf- 
ficient produce, as I thought, to justify me in taking it 
down the river to sell. 

"After much persuasion, I got the consent of mother to 



io4 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



go, and constructed a little flatboat, large enough to take 
a barrel or two of things, that we had gathered, with my- 
self and little bundle, down to New Orleans. A steamer 
was coining down the river. We have, you know, no 
wharves on the Western streams; and the custom was, if 

passengers were at any of the 
landings, for them to go out in 
a boat, the steamer stopping 
and taking them on board. 

"I was contemplating my 
new flatboat, and wondering 
whether I could make it strong- 
er or improve it in any partic- 
ular, when two men came down 
to the shore in carriages with 
trunks, and looking at the dif- 
ferent boats singled out mine, 
and asked, 'Who owns this?' I 
answered, somewhat modestly, 
'I do.' 'Will you,' said one of 
them, 'take us and our trunks out to the steamer?' 'Cer- 
tainly,' said I. I was very glad to have the chance of earn- 
ing something. I supposed that each of them would give 
me two or three bits. The trunks were put on my flatboat, 
the passengers seated themselves on the trunks, and I 
sculled them out to the steamboat. 

"They got on board, and I lifted up their heavy trunks, 
and put them on deck. The steamer was about to put 
on steam again, when I called out that they had forgot- 
ten to pay me. Each of them took from his pocket a 




Chas. Sumner, a Supporter of Lin 
coin during his Administration. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 105 

silver half-dollar, and threw it on the floor of my boat. I 
could scarcely believe my eyes as I picked up the money. 
Gentlemen, you may think it was a very little thing, 
and in these days it seems to me a trifle; but it was a 
most important incident in my life. I could scarcely 
credit that I, a poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than 
a day — that by honest work I had earned a dollar. The 
world seemed wider and fairer before me. I was a more 
hopeful and confident being from that time." 



SAYINGS OF LINCOLN. 

When the white man governs himself, that is self-gov- 
ernment; but when he governs himself, and also governs 
another man, that is more than self-government — that is 
despotism. 

Little by little, but steadily as man's march to the 
grave, we have been giving up the old for the new faith. 
Near eighty years ago we began by declaring that all 
men are created equal; but now from that beginning we 
have run down to the other declaration that for some 
men to enslave others is a "sacred right of self-govern- 
ment. ' ■ These principles cannot stand together. They 
are as opposite, as God and Mammon; and whoever holds 
to one must despise the other. 

So I say, in relation to the principle that all men are 
created equal, let it be as nearly reached as we can. If 
we cannot give freedom to every creature, let us do noth- 
ing that will impose slavery upon any other creature. 

All honor to Jefferson — to the man who, in the con- 
crete pressure of a struggle for national independence by 



106 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to 
introduce into a merely revolutionary document an ab- 
stract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so 
to embalm it there, that to-day and in all coining days it 
shall be a rebuke and stumbling-block to the harbingers 
of reappearing tyranny and oppression. 

Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm re- 
liance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored 
land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all 
our present difficulties. 

I would despise myself if I supposed myself ready to 
deal less liberally with an adversary than I would be 
willing to be treated myself. 

In a storm at sea, no one on board can wish the ship 
to sink; and yet, not unfrequently, all go down together, 
because too many will direct, and no single mind can be 
allowed to control. 

I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, 
and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear 
to be true views. 

We will speak for freedom and against slavery, as long 
as the Constitution of our country guarantees free speech, 
until everywhere on this wide land, the sun shall shine 
and the rain shall fall and the wind blow upon no man 
who goes forth to unrequited toil. 

There are two ways of establishing a proposition. 
One is, by trying to demonstrate it upon reason; and the 
other is, to show that great men in former times have 
thought so and so, and thus to pass it by the weight of 
pure authority. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 107 

Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false ac- 
cusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces 
of destruction to the Government, nor of dungeons to 
ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, 
and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty, 
as we understand it. 

I hold that in the contemplation of universal law and 
of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpet- 
ual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fun- 
damental law of all national governments. 

If the Almighty Ruler of nations, with his eternal 
truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on 
your side of the South, that truth and that justice will 
surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal, the 
American people. 

EXTRACTS FROM LINCOLN'S SPEECHES. 

FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 

"The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, 
in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and 
and continued in the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was 
further matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen States expressly 
plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of 
Confederation, in 1778; and finally, in 1787, one of the declared ob- 
jects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was to form a 
more perfect Union. But if the destruction of the Union by one or by 
a part only of the States be lawfully possible, the Union is less than 
before, the Constitution having lost the vital element of perpetuity. 

"It follows from these views that no State, upon its own mere mo- 
tion, can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances 
to that effect, are legally void; and that acts of violence within any- 
State or States against the authority of the United States, are insurrec- 
tionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances 



108 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

"Physically speaking we cannot separate; we cannot remove our 
respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall be- 
tween them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the 
presence and beyond the reach of each other, but the different parts 
of our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to face; 
and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between 
them. Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous 
or more satisfactory after separation than before? Can aliens make 
treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more 
faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? .... 

"Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him 
who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to 
adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulties. 

"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in 
mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not 
assail you. 

"You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggress- 
ors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the Govern- 
ment; while I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect, 
and defend' it. 

"I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We 
must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must 
not break our bonds of affection. 

"The mvstic cords of memory, stretching from every battle-field 
and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this 
broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, 
as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." 

DEDICATORY ADDRESS AT GETTYSBURG. 

The version here given is a literal transcript of the speech Mr. 
Lincoln wrote out for a fair in Baltimore, Nov. 19, 1863. 

'Tourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this 
continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the 
proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in 
a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so con- 
ceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great 
battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that 
field as the final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 109 

that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we 
should do this. 

"But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, — we cannot consecrate, 
—we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, 
Avho struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to 
add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what 
we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, 
the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which 
they who have fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 

"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remain- 
ing before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devo- 
tion to the cause for which they gave the last full measure of devo- 
tion — that we here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in 
vain, — that this nation under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, 
— and that the government of the people, by the people for the peo- 
ple, shall not perish from the earth." 

FAST DAY PROCLAMATION, MARCH 30, 1863. 

"Whereas, It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own 
their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their 
sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that 
genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize 
the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures, and proven bv 
all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. 

"And, insomuch as we know that, by his Divine laws, nations, like 
individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this 
world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, 
which now desolates the land, maybe but a punishment inflicted upon 
us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our National ref- 
ormation as a whole people? 

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. 
We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperitv. 
We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has 
ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the 
gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and en- 
riched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the de- 
ceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by 
some superior wisdom and virtue of our own." 



110 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 




Gen. W. T. Sherman. 
Born 1820. Died 1891. 



Gen. Philip H. Sheridan. 
Born 1831. Died 1888. 



THE STORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

FOR A SCHOOL OR CLUB PROGRAMME. 

Bach numbered paragraph is to be given to a pupil or 
member to read, or to recite, in a clear, distinct tone. 

If the school or club is small, each person may take 
three or four paragraphs, but should not be required to 
recite them in succession. 

1. Abraham Lincoln was born Feb. 12, 1809, in the county of 
LaRue, in the state of Kentucky. 

2. He first attended school at Little Pidgeon Creek in the win- 
ter of 1819. 

3. Three or four years later he attended Crawford's school in 
the same locality. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. in 

4. In 1826, he received his last schooling under the tuition of 
Mr. Swaney. To reach this "institution of learning," he walked four 
miles and a half each way. 

5. Later, as a "hired boy," he taught himself as best he could 
with his rude surroundings, often "ciphering" on a wooden fire shovel 
or anything else that came in his way. 

6. His reading was very limited, being confined to two or three 
books, but fortunately he had access to the great fountain of Biblical 
literature. 

7. Obtaining access to the "Revised Statutes of Indiana," which 
could not be loaned from the constable's office, he early laid the 
foundation for legal study. 

8. In 1831, he went to New Orleans on a flat-boat, with a little 
cargo of pork, hogs and corn. It was here that he first saw some of 
the abominations of slavery and the slave trade. The workings of 
the system greatly depressed him, and drew from him the emphatic 
and almost prophetic exclamation, " If I ever get a chance to hit slav- 
ery, F II hit it hardy 

9. It was after his return from this trip that he found an English 
grammar, and mastered it by the light of pine knots during the long 
winter evenings. 

10. The Black Hawk war broke out in 1832, and Lincoln enlist- 
ed. Although without military experience, his personal popularity 
made him the captain of his company. 

11. After the war was over he became a candidate for the State 
Legislature, and although he was defeated, the campaign was of great 
service to him in the way of experience. 

12. He began the study of law with borrowed books, and put his 
own knowledge into practice by drawing up legal papers, and also 
conducting small cases without remuneration. 

13. Many volumes pertaining to the sciences now found their 
way into his hands, and also some of the standard works of literature. 

14. He then sought and obtained the position of deputy surveyor 
of Sangamon County, and in this work he became an expert. He was 
often sought for as a referee when trouble arose concerning boun- 
dary lines, etc. 

15. From 1833 to 1836 he was the postmaster of New Salem, 
having received the appointment as a Jackson democrat. 

16. It was during this time that he again became a candidate for 
the Legislature. His campaign was personally conducted, and this 
time he was the victorious candidate. 

17. It was at this session of the legislature that he met his great 
opponent, Stephen A. Douglas. In time, he fully accorded him the 
title of "The Little Giant." 

18. In August of 1835, Lincoln met with a terrible loss, being no 



112 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

less than the death of Anne Rutledge, the beautiful girl to whom he 
was betrothed. Nearly thirty years afterward he spoke lovingly of 
her to an old friend. "The death of this fair girl," said Mr. Herndon, 
"shattered Lincoln's happiness. He threw off his infinite sorrow only 
by leaping wildly into the political arena." 

19. In 1836, he was again a candidate for the legislature. He 
was self-nominated, for this was before the days of caucuses and con- 
ventions. In the New Salem Journal he announced his platform, 
which contained a suffrage plank to the effect that all men and 
women who either bore arms,or paid taxes, should be allowed to vote. 

20. Lincoln was elected in triumph. Sangamon County, which 
had usually gone Democratic, voting the Whig ticket by more than 
four hundred majority. 

21. In 1837, Mr. Lincoln moved to Springfield, where his active 
life as a lawyer began, the State Capital having been moved about 
that time from Yandalia. 

22. In November of 1842, he was married to Miss Mary Todd. 

23. Mr. Lincoln was first elected to Congress in 1846. 

24. One year later he took his seat as a member of the Thirtieth 
Congress. Other notable members at this time were Ex-President 
John Quincv Adams, Andrew Johnson, Alex. H. Stephens, besides 
Robert Toombs, Robert B. Rhett, and others. In the Senate were 
Daniel Webster, Simon Cameron, Lewis Cass, John C. Calhoun and 
Jefferson Davis. 

25. At the close of his Congressional services in 1849, ^ r - Lin- 
coln returned to Springfield and resumed the practice of law, al- 
though his fees were considered by his legal brethren "ridiculously 
small." 

26. During the contest in Kansas, in 1855, Lincoln's views on 
the subject of slavery were fully expressed in a radical letter to Mr. 
Speed. 

27. In 1858, Lincoln held his notable debates with Stephen A. 
Douglas. 

28. In i860, Abraham Lincoln received the nomination of the Re- 
publican party for the presidency, Stephen A. Douglas was the nom- 
inee of the Democratic party and these two prominent men were 
again rivals. 

29. Threatening times succeeded his election with the whole 
country aroused by threats of secession. 

30. In. March of i86i,he was inaugurated amidst the most om- 
inous conditions that a new president was ever called upon to face. 

31. He delivered an inaugural address which for wisdom, and 
consistency has never been surpassed. 

32. Following the fall of Fort Sumter, Mr. Lincoln issued on the 
15th of April a call for 75000 volunteers. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN; 



"3 




33. Four days later he issued a proclamation for the blockade 
of Southern ports. 

34. In 1862, he met with the terrible loss by death of his son Wil- 
lie. In the midst of this great trial his thoughts reverted to his own 
mother whom he lost when a child, "I remember her prayers, "^he said 
"they have always followed me — they have clung to me all my life." 

35. During the long war he 
was everywhere busy doing ev- 
erything possible for the com- 
fort of the soldiers, especially 
the sick and wounded. 

36. On Jan. 1st, 1863, the 
Emancipation Proclamation was 
issued. 

37. Following logically the 
policy of the Emancipation Act, 
he began the experiment of in- 
troducing colored troops into 
the armies of the United States. 

38. In December of 1863, 
he made General Grant the 
commander-in-chief of all the 
Union armies. 

3q. In 1864, Abraham Lin- 
coln was again elected president 
of the United States. 

40. About the middle of August 1864, an attempt was made upon 
Lincoln's life one evening as he was riding back from the Soldier's 
Home. The bullet of the would-be assassin passed through the silk 
hat which the president wore, but at his request the matter was kept 
very quiet. 

41. Early in December he submitted to Congress his fourth an- 
nual message, and this was followed by the passage of the Constitu- 
tional Amendment forever prohibiting slavery in the territory of the 
United States. 

42. On March 4th, 1865, Mr. Lincoln was again inaugurated as 
President of the United States. 

43. The great rebellion was brought to a successful close with 
great rejoicing over General Lee's surrender. 

44. On the afternoon before his death he signed a pardon for a 
soldier who was under a death sentence. This act of mercy was his 
last official order. 

45. On the 14th of April he fell by the hand of an assassin and 
the nation was in mourning. 



Gen. IT. S, Grant. 
Born 1822. Died 1885. 



ri4 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

PROGRAMME FOR A LINCOLN ENTERTAINMENT. 

i. Music — "The Red, White and Blue." 

2. Recitation — Mr. Lincoln's favorite poem, "Oh why should the 
Spirit of Mortal be Proud?" 

3. Essay — Early Life of Lincoln and the books that he read. 

4. Recitation — Extracts from first Inaugural Address. 

5. Dramatic Scene — Uncle Sam and Miss Columbia receiving 
the Presidents. (A boy dressed as Uncle Sam and a girl as Col- 
umbia, should stand on the platform receiving the Presidents as they 
arrive, dressed in the costume of their period, Washington being the 
rirst. They may be introduced by some one representing a hero of 
the War of the Rebellion.) 

6. Recitation — Bryant's Abraham Lincoln. 

7. Music — "We arc Coming Father Abraham, Three Hundred 
Thousand Strong." 

ALTERNATE PROGRAM M E. 

Music — "Tramp, Tramp, the Boys are Marching." 
Recitation-Lincoln's Address at Gettysburg. 
Anecdotes of Lincoln. 
Music — "Marching Through Georgia." 
Recitation — Lowell's Commemorative Ode. 
Music — "John Brown's Body." 
Tableau Lincoln Freeing the Slave. 
Music — "Hail Columbia." 



QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW. 

Where and when was Abraham Lincoln born ? What canyon say 
of his own mother? What can von scry of his step-mother? U7iaf 
sort of a man was his father? What were the early educational ad- 
vantages of Abraham Lincoln? Describe his early home? I That 
books furnished his early reading? From whence did he derive his 
first knowledge of law? What can yon say of his boyish character? 
How did he earn his first dollar ? What was his first business -ven- 
ture? What was his experience in the Block Hawk J Tar? What 
can you say of his first political work? When and where was he a 
postmaster? Describe his first political canvass? Describe his per- 
sonal appearance? 

Describe his second political campaign ? J I 'hen and where did he 
first meet Stephen A . Douglas? What can you say of his relation to 
national politics in connection with the legislature of 1836-37? 

What were his early views on the subject of slavery ? I J 7/at can say 
of Elijah P, Lovejoy? What relation did Lincoln sustain, to the cam- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 115 

paign of 1844 ? J I T hat can you say of the J J Hlmot Proviso ? I Vhat did 
Caton say of Li)icoln? What can you say of Line obi 1 s eulogy upon 
Henry Clay? 

Describe the long rivalry between Douglas and Lincoln ? Des- 
cribe his relation with the republican convention of Illinois in 1858? 
Describe his address at Cooper Institute in Feb. of i860? Describe his 
first nomination for the presidency ? Give a synopsis of his last fare- 
well to citizens of Springfield? Give an account of his first in- 
augural? Recite briefly the principal events connected with his first 
tern/? Give a synopsis of his second inaugural address? Give a 
brief synopsis of his address at Gettysburg ? 

Describe his character and also his personal appearance while he 
was president ? In what way did he usually exercise executive clem- 
ency ? Mention a few instances of this ? What was his last official act ? 
When and how did he die? What can you say of the national grief? 
Describe some of the scenes connected with the passing of his body from 
the Capital to the tomb ? 

In reviewing his career what do you consider the most important 
of his official acts? What is the general verdict of history upon the 
character of the man ? 

SUBJECTS FOR SPECIAL STUDY 

/. The Nebraska Controversy. 

2. The humor of Lincoln. 

j. The eloquence of Lincoln. 

./. Contrast betweefi Douglas and Lincoln. 

j. The Emancipation Proclamation. 

6. Lincoln and Seward. 

7. Lincoln and Horace Greeley. 

8. Lincoln and Stanton. 

o. Lincoln as a Statesman. 



CHRONOLOGICAL EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF LINCOLN. 

i8oq. Born in La Rue County, Kentucky, Feb. 12. 

1816. Moved with his parents to Indiana. 

1830. Moved with his father and step-mother to Macon County, 111.. 

1 831. Constructed a flat-boat and made a successful trip to New Or- 

leans and back. 

1832. Served as clerk in the store of Mr.Offutt. Captain of Volunteers 

in Black Hawk War. 

1833. Embarked in politics and studied law. Defeated for the legis- 

lature. Appointed postmaster at New Salem, 111. 

1834-1840. Elected successively to the legislature. Making Spring- 
field his home. 

1842. November, married Mary Todd, daughter of the Hon. Robert 
S. Todd of Lexington, Ky. 

J846. Elected to Congress over his competitor, Rev. Peter Cartwright. 



n6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

1848. Made speeches in favor of General Taylor for the Presidency. 

1854. Made earnest speeches in favor of the Anti-Nebraska move- 

ment. 

1855. Defeated for the United States Senate by Lyman Trumbull. 

Declined the offered nomination for Governor of Illinois. 

1856. Headed the Electoral ticket for General Fremont as President. 
1858. Engaged in the famous debates with Stephen A. Douglas. 
i860. Delivered his speech in Cooper Institute, New York City, Feb. 

27. Received the Republican Nomination for the Presidency, 
at Chicago, May. Elected to the Presidency November 6. 

1861. Delivered his wonderful inauguration address at Washington, 

1). C, March 4. Called for 75000 men to preserve the Union 
April 15. Blockade of Southern ports declared April 19. 
Called for 42,034 Volunteers May 3. First Message to Con- 
gress July 4. Appointed a Fast Day on August 12, for the last 
Thursday in September. 

1862. Sent special Message to Congress for the gradual abolishment 

of slavery, March 6. Signed bill for the abolishing of slavery 
in the District of Columbia April 16. Preliminary Proclama- 
tion of Emancipation issued September 22. Annual Message 
to Congress Dec. 1. 

1863. Final Proclamation of Emancipation made Jan. 1. Sent reply 

to the testimonial of Sympathy and Confidence from the work- 
ingmen of Manchester, England Jan. 19. Inaugurated the 
custom of setting apart a common day throughout the land 
for thanksgiving — the last Thursday in November. The re- 
nowned dedicatory address at the consecration of the Na- 
tional Cemetery at Gettysburg, Nov. 19. Annual Message 
to Congress Dec. 9. 

1864. Re-elected President, Novembers. 

1865. Delivered second inaugural address, one of the greatest state 

papers that history has preserved. Entered Richmond with 
the Union Army, April 11. Assassinated by J. Wilkes Booth, 
April 14. Buried at Springfield, Illinois, May 4. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

For those who wish to read more extensively, the following works 
are especially commended: 

"Life of Lincoln," by Nicolay & Hay. Ten vols. The Century Co. 
"Life of Lincoln," by Herndon & Weik. Two vols. Appleton & Co. 
"Life of Lincoln," by Ward H. Lamon. J. R. Osgood & Co. 
"Life of Lincoln," by Isaac N. Arnold. A. C. McClurg & Co. 
"Life of Lincoln," by John T. Morse, Jr. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
"Life on the Circuit with Lincoln,'' by Henry C. Whitney. Estes & 

Lauriet. 
"Life of Lincoln," by Wm. O. Stoddard. Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 
"Life of Lincoln," bv (. ( i. Holland. 



i90: 



1 COPY DEL. TO CAT. 
APR. 9 1903 



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